Metal chelated alkali

The molecules producing coordinative saturation need not be chelating. As a by-product to the study of synergism in the extraction of alkali metal chelate salts, Healy (14) isolated crystalline complexes Li(PhCO-CHCOPhJSa where S = tri-n-octylphosphine oxide or N, N-dibutyl-acetamide. 

The general structure of alkali metal alcoholates of polyhydroxy compounds is probably very similar to those proposed by Martell and Calvin1 for the alkali metal chelates of o-salicylaldehyde (see Figs. 9 and 10). 148 1M>IM Unfortunately, because of the highly amorphous nature of nearly all pf the alcoholates and adducts formed by the interaction of metal hydroxides with carbohydrates, x-ray diffraction studies have failed to furnish information regarding the precise location of the metal in these complexes. 

Alkali metal chelates possess extraordinary anion reactivity which is attributed to deaggregated, cation-solvated ion pairs in hydrocarbon solvents where anion solvation is negligible. In contrast, solvated anions must undergo desolvation before reaction, making them less reactive than the naked anions obtained in the chelate systems. 

A. W. Laager, ed., "Polyamine Chelated Alkali Metal Complexes," Chem. Ser. 130 (1974). 

A. E. Halasa in A. W. Langer, ed., Polyamine-Chelated Alkali Metal Compounds, ACS Advances in Chemisty, No. 130, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., 1974. 

Oxygen chelates such as those of edta and polyphosphates are of importance in analytical chemistry and in removing Ca ions from hard water. There is no unique. sequence of stabilities since these depend sensitively on a variety of factors where geometrical considerations are not important the smaller ions tend to form the stronger complexes but in polydentate macrocycles steric factors can be crucial. Thus dicyclohexyl-18-crown-6 (p. 96) forms much stronger complexes with Sr and Ba than with Ca (or the alkali metals) as shown in Fig. 5.6. Structural data are also available and an example of a solvated 8-coordinate Ca complex [(benzo-l5-crown-5)-Ca(NCS)2-MeOH] is shown in Fig. 5.7. The coordination polyhedron is not regular Ca lies above the mean plane of the 5 ether oxygens... 

In addition reactions to chiral carbonyl compounds, the stereochemical course taken by resonance-stabilized alkali metals or magnesium benzyl anions resembles that taken by localized carbanions of similar bulk. Thus, conditions can be delineated which lead to either the steric approach or chelation control the following serve as examples. 

In the skeleton of many chelating diphosphines, the phosphorus atoms bear two aryl substituents, not least because the traditional route to this class of compounds involves the nucleophilic substitution with alkali metal diarylphosphides of enantiopure ditosylates derived from optically active natural precursors, approach which is inapplicable to the preparation of P-alkylated analogs. The correct orientation of these aryl substituents in the coordination sphere has been identified as a stereo chemically important feature contributing to the recognition ability of the metal complex [11,18-20]. 

The low affinity of the alkali metals for neutral P-donor ligands has hampered efforts to synthesize complexes in which there is a genuine R3P-M interaction (see Section I). However, this poor affinity may be overcome by incorporating a remote phosphine functionality into a potentially chelating anionic ligand, such as a phosphine-substituted alkoxide, amide, or aryl, and several alkali metal complexes of such ligands have been isolated. 

Onium salts, crown ethers, alkali metal salts or similar chelated salts, quaternary ammonium and phosphonium are some of the salts which have been widely used as phase transfer catalysts (PTC). The choice of phase transfer catalysts depends on a number of process factors, such as reaction system, solvent, temperature, removal and recovery of catalyst, base strength etc. 

The preferential -configuration of the enol esters, derived from p-dicarbonyl compounds under phase-transfer conditions, contrasts with the formation of the Z-enol esters when the reaction is carried out by classical procedures using alkali metal alkoxides. In the latter case, the U form of the intermediate enolate anion is stabilized by chelation with the alkali metal cation, thereby promoting the exclusive formation of the Z-enol ester (9) (Scheme 3.5), whereas the formation of the ion-pair with the quaternary ammonium cation allows the carbanion to adopt the thermodynamically more stable sickle or W forms, (7) and (8), which lead to the E-enol esters (10) [54],... 

Margerison, D. Newport, J. P. Trans. Faraday Soc., 1963,59, 2058-2063. See also Langer, A. W. "Polyamine-Chelated Alkali Metal Compounds" American Chemical Society Washington. D.C.. 1974 Advances in Chemistry Series No. 130. 

The discovery of crown ethers and cryptands in the late sixties opened new possibilities of cation recognition with improvement of selectivity, especially for alkali metal ions for which there is a lack of selective chelators. Then, the idea of coupling these ionophores to chromophores or fluorophores, leading to so-called chromoionophores and fluoroionophores, respectively, emerged some years later l9) As only fluorescent probes are considered in this chapter, chromoionophores will not be described. 

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