Ionization of ethylene glycol in isodielectric acetonitrile + ethylene glycol mixtures at 25 °C

Abstract

The autoprotolysis constants (Ksm) of ethylene glycol in isodielectric acetonitrile + ethylene glycol mixtures have been determined at 25 °C from emf measurements on the cell[Formula: see text]From these values, those of δΔG0, the free energy of ionization of ethylene glycol in these mixed solvents relative to that in pure glycol, have been computed. The nature of variation of δΔG0 with solvent composition has been compared with that in two other mixed systems: water + ethylene glycol and methanol + 1,2-propanediol and the intrinsic differences between the solvation characteristics of the various solvents have been pointed out. The standard free energies of transfer of the glycoxide ion, ΔGt0(OEg−), from pure glycol to acetonitrile + glycol mixtures have also been estimated using ΔGt0(H+) values obtained earlier. The glycoxide ion is increasingly desolvated as the acetonitrile content of the solvent increases, as indicated by increasingly positive values of ΔGt0(OEg−). This behaviour has been compared with those of ΔGt0(H+) and ΔGt0(Cl−) determined previously.