Electrophoretic studies of mixed ligand complexes in solution—copper(II), nickel(II), cobalt(II), uranyl(II) and thorium(IV)—tartarate—nitrilotriacetate

Paper electrophoresis has been used for the study of the equilibria in mixed ligand complex systems in solution. The method is based on the migration of a spot of a metal ion, with the complexants added in the background electrolyte (0.1 M perchloric acid), at a fixed pH. The concentration of one of the complexants [A] is kept constant, while that of second ligand [L] is varied. A graph of—log [L] against mobility is used to obtain information on the formation of the mixed ligand complex, and to calculate the stability constant. Using this technique, the values of overall stability constant of the complex metal—tartarate—nitrilotriacetate have been found to be 10^12.25, 10^5.98, 10^?3.56, and 10^3.74 for Cu(II), Ni(II), Co(II), UO₂(II) and Th(IV) complexes, respectively at μ = 0.1 and temp. = 40°C.