Chelation, entropy

Thus, at the local level the polychelate effect is close to the chelate one provided the model reaction components are selected correctly. However, in doing so one has to account for the polymeric nature of chelating ligand and the associated contributions to the chelation entropy. In the reaction... 

On the basis of the values of AS° derived in this way it appears that the chelate effect is usually due to more favourable entropy changes associated with ring formation. However, the objection can be made that and /3l-l as just defined have different dimensions and so are not directly comparable. It has been suggested that to surmount this objection concentrations should be expressed in the dimensionless unit mole fraction instead of the more usual mol dm. Since the concentration of pure water at 25°C is approximately 55.5 moldm , the value of concentration expressed in mole fractions = cone in moldm /55.5 Thus, while is thereby increased by the factor (55.5), /3l-l is increased by the factor (55.5) so that the derived values of AG° and AS° will be quite different. The effect of this change in units is shown in Table 19.1 for the Cd complexes of L = methylamine and L-L = ethylenediamine. It appears that the entropy advantage of the chelate, and with it the chelate effect itself, virtually disappears when mole fractions replace moldm . ... 

The reaction is controlled, not primarily by the alteration of FMO energies, but by the chelation of the substrates to the catalyst leading to a favorable entropy of the pseudo-intramolecular intermediates. 

In each case, both the entropy and enthalpy terms favour the formation of the chelated complex, regardless of the t/-electron configuration. Note, however, that outside the d block, i.e. with alkaline earths and other main group metals, it is often found that the entropy term is dominant. 

In some cases, the enthalpy term may actually oppose the formation of the chelated complex, although the entropy term outweighs it to give an overall favourable free energy term. In general, this situation is the exception rather than the rule. 

Ligand-Field Stabilization Energies 8.2.3 Contributions to the Chelate Effect - The Entropy... 

In more mathematical language, the favourable entropy term is associated with the release of a large number of monodentate ligands upon the formation of the chelate. 

The rate sequence is determined by the entropy term and correlates with the oxidation potential of the chelate complex, indicating an outer-sphere electron transfer. 

The enthalpy value of Eq. (3.23) is very small as might be expected if two Cd-N bonds in Cd(NH3) 2 are replaced by two Cd-N bonds in Cd(en). The favorable equilibrium constants for reactions [Eqs. (3.22) and (3.23)] are due to the positive entropy change. Note that in reaction, Eq. (3.23), two reactant molecules form three product molecules so chelation increases the net disorder (i.e., increase the degrees of freedom) of the system, which contributes a positive AS° change. In reaction Eq. (3.23), the AH is more negative but, again, it is the large, positive entropy that causes the chelation to be so favored. 

Haymore (4) has pointed out that the noncyclic ligand has many degrees of freedom with respect to rotations about single bonds, whereas the cyclic analog has fewer since the ends are connected. Thus, the cyclic chelate should be greatly favored from an entropy consideration. If correct, this explanation allows one to postulate that the poor metal complexing properties observed for non-cyclic ethers is a result of small... 

Eichhom and his co-workers have thoroughly studied the kinetics of the formation and hydrolysis of polydentate Schiff bases in the presence of various cations (9, 10, 25). The reactions are complicated by a factor not found in the absence of metal ions, i.e, the formation of metal chelate complexes stabilizes the Schiff bases thermodynamically but this factor is determined by, and varies with, the central metal ion involved. In the case of bis(2-thiophenyl)-ethylenediamine, both copper (II) and nickel(II) catalyze the hydrolytic decomposition via complex formation. The nickel (I I) is the more effective catalyst from the viewpoint of the actual rate constants. However, it requires an activation energy cf 12.5 kcal., while the corresponding reaction in the copper(II) case requires only 11.3 kcal. The values for the entropies of activation were found to be —30.0 e.u. for the nickel(II) system and — 34.7 e.u. for the copper(II) system. Studies of the rate of formation of the Schiff bases and their metal complexes (25) showed that prior coordination of one of the reactants slowed down the rate of formation of the Schiff base when the other reactant was added. Although copper (more than nickel) favored the production of the Schiff bases from the viewpoint of the thermodynamics of the overall reaction, the formation reactions were slower with copper than with nickel. The rate of hydrolysis of Schiff bases with or/Zw-aminophenols is so fast that the corresponding metal complexes cannot be isolated from solutions containing water (4). 

These results clearly indicate that the chelate ligation is driven primarily by the enthalpic factor and the entropy plays merely a trivial role in determining the complex stability. This is quite reasonable since the structures of these chelate complexes are strictly defined by the number and direction of the coordination sites of given heavy/transition metal ions, and therefore there is little room for the entropic term to adjust flexibly the complex structure and stability. On the contrary, alkali and alkaline earth metal ions also have the formal coordination numbers, but the actual number and direction of ligand coordination are highly flexible in the weak interaction-driven ligation by hard donors like glyme and crown ether. 

Kx for copper (II)-diamine complex is 10.36 and 9.45 for 1,2-ethanediamine and 1,3-propanediamine, respectively (-2)]. The large difference in the stabilities of the two copper (II)-diamine complexes is attributed to an unfavorable entropy effect associated with an increase in the size of the metal-chelate ring (2). Extrapolating to the / -ketoimine derivatives, it seems reasonable to expect that the stability of bisacetylacetonetrimethylenediiminocopper(II) would be less than that of the ethylenediamine analog and to suspect that the former compound is less stable than bis-(4-iminopentane-2-ono) copper (II). That this is reasonable is... 

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