Complexation Equilibria and Determination of Stability Constants of Some Divalent Metal Ion Complexes of L-Cysteine and Diphenylamine in Aqueous Media

Abstract

<i>Background. </i>Metal complexes of biologically active ligands had considerable interests. L-cysteinate residue, L-Cys, is a biologically abundant and important versatile binding site of proteins. Diphenylamine, DPA, is an important aromatic amine containing two phenyl groups. Complexation equilibria of the divalent metal ions, Ca²⁺ and Zn²⁺ with the bio- relevant α-amino acid, L-cysteine and the nitrogen-containing diphenylamine ligand were investigated by means of the potentiometric technique at 25.0 ± 0.1°C and constant ionic strength of 0.200 ± 0.001 mol·dm^-3 NaNO₃. <i>Objective.</i> The stability constants and standard free energy changes of the α-amino acid, L-cysteine and diphenylamine complex species were determined at 0.200 ± 0.001 mol·dm^-3ionic strength. <i>Methods.</i> The formation of the different 1:1 and 1:2 binary complexes and 1:1:1 ternary complexes were inferred from the potentiometric titrations. <i>Results.</i> The concentration distribution of L-cysteine species formed in solution was evaluated. The dissociation constants of the α-amino acid and diphenylamine were determined at different ionic strength. The stability constants of these binary and ternary systems were calculated. The values of ∆ log₁₀ K, percent relative stabilization, %R.S. and log₁₀ X for the ternary systems were evaluated and discussed. <i>Concussion.</i> The ternary complex formation occurred in a stepwise manner with L-cysteine acting as the primary ligand. The obtained values of ∆ G⁰ indicated that Complex formation reactions are spontaneous. Also, for all systems studied, the ternary complexes formed are more thermodynamically stable than the binary complexes.