Metal complexes of cyclic tetra-azatetra-acetic acids.

The cyclic tetra-aza complexones cDOTA ([12]ane N(4).4ac), cTRITA ([13]ane N(4).4ac) and cTETA ([14]ane N(4).4ac) have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, titration, melting-point determination and NMR (and infrared) spectroscopy. The ionization constants and the stability constants of the MH(2)L, MHL and ML complexes formed with alkali, alkaline-earth and some transition metals were determined at 25.0 +/- 0.1 degrees and ionic strength 0.10M [KNO(3) and (CH(3))(4)NNO(3)]. It was confirmed that cDOTA forms the most stable Ca(2+) and Sr(2+) complexes but the reported inversion of the order of stability of the complexes of these two ions with cTRITA was not confirmed. Also, the values of the stability constants determined in this work differ substantially from those previously reported for ML species. cDOTA is an interesting alternative to classical non-cyclic complex-ones for the complexometric determination of Ca(2+) and Mg(2+) but neither this ligand nor the other two offer advantages over EDTA or DCTA for the complexometric titration of transition metals.