The basicities of simple organic bases – aliphatic and aromatic amines, amidines, phosphazenes, as well as saturated and unsaturated nitrogen heterocycles – are examined in acetonitrile, dimethyl sulfoxide, tetrahydrofuran, water and the gas phase. The basicities (pKaH values) of conjugate acids of a large variety of bases in these media are presented and discussed. Equations employing easily usable structural descriptors have been derived for approximately converting basicities from acetonitrile to other solvents. Recommendations are given on their practical use and a number of pKaH values that are experimentally unavailable are estimated from these relationships. An important part of the minireview is a large compilation of pKaH and GB values of the compounds in solvents and the gas phase, respectively, as well as the revised basicity scale in acetonitrile, now containing more than 270 pKaH values.
In this work we explored the relationship between the structure and solvent effects on the basicity of a large selection of conjugated N‐heterocyclic nitrogen bases in different media: the polar aprotic solvent acetonitrile, the polar protic solvent water and the gas phase. Altogether, 58 previously unpublished basicity values in different media for 39 compounds are presented, including 30 experimentally determined pKa values in acetonitrile. We present the pKa and gas‐phase basicity values for quino[7,8‐h]quinoline, which is one of the most basic conjugated nitrogen heterocyclic compounds without basicity‐enhancing substituents. The trends in basicity are rationalized by comparing the basicity data of related compounds in different solvents, as well as by using isodesmic reactions. The gas‐phase basicity is predominantly determined by the ability of a molecule to disperse the excess positive charge over a large number of atoms. In solution the situation is less clear and smaller systems with localized charge often lead to higher basicities because of solvent effects. In particular, it was found that the fusion of an additional benzene ring does not always lead to an increase in basicity in solution: its effect can be either basicity‐increasing or ‐decreasing, depending on the ring size, number and position of nitrogen atoms and medium. A correlation between the measured pKa values in MeCN and in water suggests that these two different solvents exert a similar effect on the basicity of the studied heterocycles.
A unified pH scale of absolute values (pHabs scale) enables the comparison of acidities in different solvents. To date, very few different experimental setups have been used for the measurement of values on this scale. The article describes the design and performance of the different symmetric cells used for unified pH measurement by several institutions. Well-established and reliable standard aqueous buffer solutions are the first step of method validation necessary to achieve a robust metrological level for more complex media. The pH of aqueous standard buffers was measured by differential potentiometry, where the potential between two glass electrodes is measured directly. All the tested electrochemical cells prove to be suitable for unified pH measurements. This validation highlights that the method is, to a large extent, independent of the used equipment, including the cell geometry. The inherent symmetry of the cell design helps to reduce the experimental workload and improve the accuracy of obtained results.
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