Solvation Thermodynamics of a Series of Homologous α-Amino Acids in Non-aqueous Binary Mixtures of Protic Ethylene Glycol and Dipolar Aprotic Acetonitrile

Abstract

Standard transfer Gibbs energies $$ \left( {\Updelta G_{t}^{0} (i)} \right) $$ and entropies $$ \left( {\Updelta S_{t}^{0} (i)} \right) $$ of transfer of the homologous α-amino acids: glycine, dl-alanine, dl-α-amino butyric acid and dl-nor-valine (nor-val) from protic ethylene glycol (EG) to proton/cation-phobic dipolar aprotic acetonitrile (ACN) mixed solvents with 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 wt% ACN compositions have been determined at 25 °C. For this purpose solubilities of the α-amino acids were measured by “formol titrimetry” at 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 °C. The chemical components of these Gibbs energies $$ \left( {\Updelta G_{t,\rm{ch}}^{0} (i)} \right) $$ and entropies $$ \left( {{\rm T}\Updelta S_{t,\rm{ch}}^{0} (i)} \right) $$ of the homologous α-amino acids have been computed by subtracting the cavity effects and dipole–dipole interaction effects. The chemical contributions of transfer energetics of these homologous α-amino acids are determined by different types of interactions. The decreased acidity, basicity, H-bonding capacity, solvophilic solvation and solvophobic solvation and increased dispersion and soft–soft interaction of ethylene glycol and acetonitrile mixtures, as compared to EG, are the guiding factors. The characteristics of the solvation thermodynamics of α-amino acids in protic EG and proton/cation-philic dipolar aprotic DMF mixed solvent systems studied earlier are also discussed here for comparison.