Determination of the thermodynamic quantities of complexation between Eu(III) and carboxylic acids by microcalorimetry

Potentiometric and microcalorimetric titration techniques were applied to determine the Gibbs free energies and enthalpies of the protonation of some carboxylic acids (acetic, glycolic, malonic and malic acids) and their complexation with Eu(III) in 1.0 M NaClO₄ solution at 25°C, where Eu(III) was used as a chemical analogue of radiologically important Am(III). By using the values of ΔG determined by potentiometric titrations, the results of calorimetric titrations were analyzed to give the values of ΔH and ΔS. To support the discussion on the obtained thermodynamic quantities, the hydration numbers of Eu(III) in the complexes were obtained by TRLFS measurement, where the luminescence lifetime of Eu(III) excited by 394 nm laser was measured. A few to several kJ/mol of enthalpies were determined for the reactions within the uncertainties of ±0.01 to ±0.4. These enthalpy values indicated that the protonation of these carboxylates were entropy-driven, that is, | -TΔS| ≫ |ΔH| in ΔG = ΔH - TΔS. The complexations of Eu(III) were also shown to be controlled mainly by entropy term. The results of TRLFS measurement revealed that the number of dehydrated water molecule increased with the degree of complexation. A linear relation was found between total entropy change of the system (ΔS _T) and the net number of released molecules from the central Eu(III) ion. However, the values of ΔS_T for the hydroxy-carboxylates were smaller than that for simple carboxylates at the same net number of molecules released from Eu(III), suggesting that the dehydration occurred not only in the cation but also in the anion.