“…Finally, the small water traces can strongly influence the experimental results in protophobic media, such as AN or AC, because the lyonium ions can exist as H 3 O + , H 5 O, etc., owing to the extremely low basicity of the solvent. In contrast, in protophilic solvents, such as DMSO, the small amounts of water cannot compete with the more basic solvent for the proton 14, 15. For example, the protonation constants for water and DMSO in AN as solvent are 3 × 10 2 and 6 × 10 5 , respectively, as reported by Kolthoff and Ikeda 14.…”