Abstract: | Abstract The protonation constants of tetraethylenepentaamineheptaacetic acid, TPHA, were determined by potentiometric titration in aqueous solution at an ionic strength of 0.10 M KNO3 and at 25°C. The formation constants of various metal-TPHA complexes were also obtained by titrating mixtures of metal to ligand in molar ratios of 1 :1 and 2:1. Calculations were performed with the computer program BEST. Individual stability constants are reported for Co(II). Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II), Hg(II) and Pb(II) with TPHA as well as their related pro-tonated species. The stabilities of the 1:1 complexes parallel to those of similar complexes with DTPA and TTHA. However the 2: 1 complexes have significantly larger log K ML's than their TTHA counterparts. The extra stability of the 2:1 metal-TPHA complexes is explained in terms of ligand denticity and steric effects. Mercury(II)-TPHA complexes exhibited the highest formation constants and the copper-TPHA complexes had slightly higher log K ML's than those for Co(II), Ni(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and Pb(II). |