Determination of the Solubility Limit of Tris(dibenzylideneacetone) dipalladium(0) in Tetrahydrofuran/Water Mixtures

作者：Franzen Stefan^*

来源：Journal of Chemical Education, 2011, 88(5): 619-623.

DOI：10.1021/ed100123d

• Upper-Division Undergraduate
• Laboratory instruction
• Physical Chemistry
• Hands-On Learning/Manipulatives
• Computer-Based Learning
• Solutions/Solvents
• Thermodynamics
• Nanotechnology
• Colloids
• UV-Vis Spectroscopy

Determination of the solubility limit of a strongly colored organometallic reagent in a mixed-solvent system provides an example of quantitative solubility measurement appropriate to understand polymer, nano-particle, and other macromolecular aggregation processes. The specific example chosen involves a solution of tris(dibenzylideneacetone) dipalladium(0), Pd-2-(dba)(3), in THF/H2O mixtures, which has the desired properties of high absorption in the visible range (lambda(max) = 528 nm) and significant difference in solubility in the two solvents THF and H2O. Pd-2(dba)(3) is readily available, safe, and commonly used in nanoparticle syntheses. The application of Flory-Huggins theory permits the fit of a quantitative model to data obtained from a straightforward laboratory experiment that can be conducted in less than 3 h. The absorbance of this compound is easily measured by UV-vis absorption spectroscopy. The application of the Beer-Lambert law to the data in this experiment is a useful exercise for students because the absorbances span three orders of magnitude.

• 出版日期2011-5