Potentiometric and AM1d studies of silicon and phosphorous podands-silver (I) complexes

Formation of complexes of structurally comparable silicon and phosphorous podands and silver (I) cations in propylene carbonate has been studied by the potentiometric and AM1d semi-empirical methods. Both types of podands form stable complexes with Ag+ cations. The stability constants of complexes including different number of silver (I) cations are determined. It has been shown that the number of Ag+ cations complexed by the podands depends strongly on the number of oxygen atoms in the oxaalkyl chains. The influence of the hydrophobic chains on the stability constants of the complexes has been found. The structures of these complexes are visualised by the AM1d semi-empirical method.