ERIC Number: EJ1199695
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Dec
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
3-D Topo Surface Visualization of Metal Ion Anti-Buffering: An Unexpected Behavior in Metal-Ligand Complexation Systems
Smith, Garon C.; Hossain, Md Mainul; Barry, Daniel D.
Journal of Chemical Education, v95 n12 p2182-2190 Dec 2018
Diluting a system with metal complexes can sometimes cause free metal ions to increase in concentration. This paper describes "metal ion anti-buffering", a situation in which free metal ion concentrations rapidly increase as system dilution drives dissociation. It only occurs under excess free ligand conditions when a solution is dominated by higher stoichiometry complexes. The Law of Mass Action is used to provide a mathematical justification for the phenomenon. A Cu[superscript 2+]- ethylenediamine mixture exhibits this phenomenon when excess free ethylenediamine (en) is present. For example, it occurs when diluting a solution containing a 4-fold excess of en over Cu[superscript 2+]. As this mixture is diluted by a factor of 5600, the modeled free Cu[superscript 2+] concentration shows a 470-fold increase. Taken together, this is 2.5 million times higher than dilution of the system would yield in other circumstances. Included are experimental data confirming anti-buffering in the Cu[superscript 2+]-en system. Many other metal-ligand systems can display this behavior. Four additional examples are illustrated, including an amino acid under physiological pH. Anti-buffering TOPOS, a free downloadable Excel workbook, allows readers to simulate this behavior for many metal-ligand systems. A PowerPoint lecture and teaching materials are also provided, suitable for inclusion in upper division and graduate courses in analytical chemistry, biochemistry, and geochemistry.
Descriptors: Science Instruction, College Science, Chemistry, Computer Assisted Instruction, Educational Technology, Graduate Study, Undergraduate Study, Scientific Concepts, Metallurgy, Visualization
Division of Chemical Education, Inc. and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
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