Research Information System
The Analyst, vol.112, no.10, pp.1377-1379, 1987 (SCI-Expanded)
Seventeen alkylammonium chlorides (methyl, ethyl, propyl and butyl) and ammonium chloride were converted into the corresponding alkylammonium acetates and ammonium acetate in the presence of a moderate excess of mercury(ll) acetate in nitrobenzene-acetic acid (16 + 1 V/V) and then the acetates were titrated potentiometrically with perchloric acid. All the compounds gave good S-shaped titration curves. From these curves, the half-neutralisation potentials of the acetates were determined. The basicity order of the primary, secondary and tertiary alkylammonium acetates is R3NHOAc> R2NH 2OAc> RNH3OAc> NH4OAc. Irrespective of the size and the shape of the alkyl groups, the half-neutralisation potentials of the primary, secondary and tertiary alkylammonium acetates are approximately 290, 261 and 235 mV, respectively. The graph of alkyl numbers of the acetates versus half-neutralisation potentials, including the half-neutralisation potential of ammonium acetate (314 mV), was nearly a straight line, which may be used in special instances for the differentiation of alkylammonium chlorides.