Contributions of inner and outer coordination sphere bonding in determining the strength of substituted phenolic pyrazoles as copper extractants.

Alkyl-substituted phenolic pyrazoles such as 4-methyl-2-[5-(n-octyl)-1H-pyrazol-3-yl]phenol (L2H) are shown to function as Cu-extractants, having similar strength and selectivity over Fe(iii) to 5-nonylsalicylaldoxime which is a component of the commercially used ACORGA® solvent extraction reagents. Substitution in the phenol ring of the new extractants has a major effect on their strength, e.g. 2-nitro-4-methyl-6-[5-(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)-1H-pyrazol-3-yl]phenol (L4H) which has a nitro group ortho to the phenolic hydroxyl group unit and has an extraction distribution coefficient for Cu nearly three orders of magnitude higher than its unsubstituted analogue 4-methyl-6-[5-(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)-1H-pyrazol-3-yl]phenol (L8H). X-ray structure determinations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirm that inter-ligand hydrogen bonding between the pyrazole NH group and the phenolate oxygen atom stabilise the Cu-complexes, giving pseudomacrocyclic structures. Electron-accepting groups ortho to the phenol oxygen atoms buttress the inter-ligand H-bonding, enhancing extractant strength but the effectiveness of this is very dependent on steric factors. The correlation between the calculated energies of formation of copper complexes in the gas phase and the observed strength of comparably substituted reagents in solvent extraction experiments is remarkable. Analysis of the energies of formation suggests that big differences in strength of extractants arise principally from a combination of the effects of the substituents on the ease of deprotonation of the proligands and, for the ortho-substituted ligands, their propensity to buttress inter-ligand hydrogen bonding.

Outer-sphere coordination chemistry: amido-ammonium ligands as highly selective tetrachloridozinc(II)ate extractants.

Eight new amido functionalized reagents, L(1)-L(8), have been synthesized containing the sequence of atoms R(2)N-CH(2)-NR'-CO-R″, which upon protonation forms a six-membered chelate with a hydrogen bond between the tertiary ammonium N-H(+) group and the amido oxygen atom. The monocationic ligands, LH(+), extract tetrachloridometal(II)ates from acidic solutions containing high concentrations of chloride ions via a mechanism in which two ligands address the "outer sphere" of the [MCl(4)](2-) unit using both N-H and C-H hydrogen bond donors to form the neutral complex as in 2L + 2HCl + MCl(2) ⇌ [(LH)(2)MCl(4)]. The strengths of L(1)-L(8) as zinc extractants in these pH-dependent equilibria have been shown to be very dependent on the number of amide groups in the R(3-n)N(CH(2)NR'COR″)(n) molecules, anti-intuitively decreasing with the number of strong hydrogen bond donors present and following the order monoamides > diamides > triamides. Studies of the effects of chloride concentration on extraction have demonstrated that the monoamides in particular show an unusually high selectivity for [ZnCl(4)](2-) over [FeCl(4)](-) and Cl(-). Hybrid-DFT calculations on the tri-, di-, and monoamides, L(2), L(3), and L(4), help to rationalize these orders of strength and selectivity. The monoamide L(4) has the most favorable protonation energy because formation of the LH(+) cation generates a "chelated proton" structure as described above without having to sacrifice an existing intramolecular amide-amide hydrogen bond. The selectivity of extraction of [ZnCl(4)](2-) over Cl(-), represented by the process 2[(LH)Cl] + ZnCl(4)(2-) ⇌ [(LH)(2)ZnCl(4)] + 2Cl(-), is most favorable for L(4) because it is less effective at binding chloride as it has fewer highly polar N-H hydrogen bond donor groups to interact with this "hard" anion.