Experimental and theoretical study on cetylpyridinium dipicrylamide – A promising ion-exchanger for cetylpyridinium selective electrodes

Abstract

The cetylpyridinium (CP) dipicrylamide (DPA) ion pair has been synthesized and characterized by the FT-IR and NMR (1H and 13C) spectroscopy, theoretically studied and tested as ion-exchanger for cetylpyridinium selective electrodes. The molecular dynamics and further DFT optimization indicate face-to-face π-π stacking interaction between pyridinium and 2,4,6-trinitrophenyl rings. The presence of weak interactions between hydrogens of cetyl chain and oxygens of nitro groups of DPA anion was confirmed by RDG function analysis. Numeric reactivity descriptors computed at the B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) level of theory show that CP-DPA has electrophilic character and can readily react with bases. Two fabricated electrodes with the CP-DPA ion-exchanger showed near-Nernstian responses towards CP chloride in the concentration range from 1 × 10−2 to 1 × 10−5 mol/L. In the case where dibutyl phthalate was used as plasticizer, the slope equals 57.2 ± 1.3 mV/decade, whereas for the case of dioctyl phthalate the slope is 61.6 ± 1.2 mV/decade.