Abstract
The four stepwise heats of protonation of the ‘tripod-like’ ligand tri-(3-aminopropyl)amine (tpt) have been determined calorimetrically at 25° in 0·1M-potassium chloride. From these results it appears that in the four stages both primary and tertiary amino-groups are protonated. The heats of formation of the complex ions [Ni tpt]2+, [Cu tpt]2+, [Cu Htpt]3+, [Cu tpt(OH)]+, and [Zn tpt]2+ have also been measured under the same experimental conditions. Through a combination of the values of the enthalpy changes with the corresponding free-energy changes, reported elsewhere, the entropies of protonation and complex formation have been obtained. A comparison between the heats of formation of [Cu Htpt]3+ and [Cu tpt]2+ shows that in the latter complex all four nitrogen atoms of the ligand are co-ordinated to the central atom. The thermodynamic functions and the electronic spectra seem to indicate a configuration that is five-co-ordinate for [Cu tpt]2+, [Cu tpt(OH)]+, and [Co tpt]2+, octahedral for [Ni tpt]2+ and [Cu Htpt]3+, and tetrahedral for [Zn tpt]2+. The low heats of formation of the copper(II) and nickel(II) complexes may be due both to the strain within the six-membered chelate ring and to the hindrance between the chelate rings.

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