Integrating a Smartphone and Molecular Modeling for Determining the Binding Constant and Stoichiometry Ratio of the Iron(II)–Phenanthroline Complex: An Activity for Analytical and Physical Chemistry Laboratories

Abstract

The binding constant and stoichiometry ratio for the formation of iron(II)–(1,10-phenanthroline) or iron(II)–o-phenanthroline complexes has been determined by a combination of a low-cost analytical method using a smartphone and a molecular modeling method as a laboratory experiment designed for analytical and physical chemistry courses. Intensity values were obtained from the digital images by measuring the RGB (red, green, blue) values (on a scale of 0–255 in intensity) of the samples between Fe(II) and o-phenanthroline using a digital camera from a smartphone. The R channel showed the best linearity for predicting the binding constant. For computational studies, iron(II) complexes using water molecules and 1,10-phenanthroline were used to evaluate the stability of the complex by varying the number of ligands. Complexes have been optimized by reaching a minimum amount of energy. It was possible to observe how stable the complexes are from the optimization calculations, including aspects about the achieved geometries. The approach provides a simple method for performing stability constants over a wide range of complexes, from the undergraduate chemistry laboratories, in the field, and in the research laboratory.