Competition quotient

NACs in a laboratory column system containing aquifer material from the banks of a river-groundwater infiltration site (Fig. 14.11). The columns were run under ferrogenic conditions. Note that zero-order kinetics suggests that the reactive sites were always saturated such as encountered in enzyme kinetics at saturation (Box 12.2). In this system, all model compounds as well as other NACs including again TNT, ADNTs, and DANTs (data not shown, see Hofstetter et al., 1999) reacted at virtually the same rate. However, when present in mixtures, the compounds showed competition for the reactive sites. A competition quotient, Qc (competition with the reference compound 4-C1-NB present at about equal concentrations) was determined for all model compounds ... 

Useful exploratory studies of acid-base behaviour in solvents of low dielectric constant have been made by conductance " and potentio-metric " titrations. Association constants are usually obtained from spectrophotometric measurements. The strengths of various bases can be compared by means of their association with an indicator acid like 2,4-dinitrophenol. If both acid and base are colourless, a competition for the base can be established between the acid and an indicator acid like bromophthalein magenta In solvents like benzene, other reactions than simple 1 1 association between B and RX may occur. Self-association of the acid or base is one such auxiliary reaction. A classic example is the dimerisation of carboxylic acids in benzene. If allowance is not made for this, constant values of the quotient [BRX]j[B][RX] will not be obtained. (Variations in the quotient cannot be attributed to interionic forces or other nonideal behaviour BRX is scarcely dissociated into ions at all and in spectrophotometric work very low concentrations of B and RX can be used.) Evidence for association ratios other than 1 1 can be obtained from indicator studies. The method developed by Kolthoff and Bruckenstein for studying reactions in anhydrous acetic acid fails for reactions in benzene and similar solvents because more than one acid molecule reacts with the indicator to give complexes of the form/w J r"(HX)yi. In such studies it is generally a good approximation... 

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