⁷Li NMR chemical shift titration and theoretical DFT calculation studies: solvent and anion effects on second‐order complexation of 12‐crown‐4 and 1‐aza‐12‐crown‐4 with Lithium cation in several aprotic solvents

Abstract

(7)Li NMR titration was used to determine stepwise complexation constants for the second-order complexation of lithium cation with 12-crown-4 in acetonitrile, propylene carbonate and a binary mixture of propylene carbonate and dimethyl carbonate. The anions used were perchlorate, hexaflurophosphate and trifluromethanesulfonate. A second ligand 1-aza-12-crown-4 was similarly investigated. The exchange between the free and complexed cation in these reactions is fast on an NMR timescale resulting in a single lithium peak which is a concentration-weighted average of the free and bound species. Solvent effects show that the 1:1 complex is much more stable in acetonitrile than in propylene carbonate or in the propylene carbonate dimethyl carbonate mixture. Anion effects for a given solvent were small. Optimized geometries of the free ligands and the 1:1 and 1:2 (sandwich) metal-ligand complexes were predicted by hybrid-density functional theory using the Gaussian 03 software package. Results were compared to literature values for 1:1 stability constants found by microcalorimetry for several of these systems and are found to be in good agreement. Although microcalorimetry only considered the formation of 1:1 complexes, (7)Li NMR shows evidence that both 1:1 and 1:2 complexes should be considered.