PNNL

Abstract

The thermodynamic parameters of complexation of Ln(III) cations with tris(2-aminoethyl)amine (tren) and tetraethylenepentamine (tetren) were determined in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) by potentiometry and calorimetry. The excitation and emission spectra and luminescence decay constants of Eu3+ and Tb3+ complexed by tren and tetren, as well as those of the same lanthanides(III) complexed with diethylenetriamine (dien) and triethylenetetramine (trien), were also obtained in the same solvent. The combination of thermodynamic and spectroscopic data showed that, in the 1:1 complexes, all nitrogens of the ligands bound to the lanthanides except in the case of tren, in which only pendant N bound. For the larger ligands (trien, tren, tetren) in the higher complexes (ML2), there was less complete binding by available donors, presumably due to steric crowding. FT-IR studies were carried out in an acetonitrile/DMSO mixture, suitably chosen in order to follow the changes in the primary solvation sphere of lanthanide(III) due to complexation of amine ligands. Results show that the mean number of molecules of DMSO removed from the inner coordination sphere of lanthanides(III) is lower than ligand denticity and that the coordination number of the metal ions increases with amine complexation from ?8 to ?10. Independently of the number and structure of the amines, linear trends, similar for all lanthanides, were obtained by plotting the values of *Gj°, *Hj° and T*Sj° for the complexation of ethylenediamine (en), dien, trien, tren and tetren as a function of the number of amine metal-coordinated nitrogen atoms. The main factors on which the thermodynamic functions of lanthanide(III) complexation reactions in DMSO depend are discussed.