Abstract
THE oxycarboxylic acids are very strong complex-forming agents, and both the carboxylic and the alcoholic hydroxyl groups take part in such formation. For calculation of complex stability constants it is necessary to know the acidic dissociation constants of both groups. However, the alcoholic hydroxyls are so weakly acidic that it is not possible to determine the dissociation constant by the usual methods. So far as we know, until now none of the oxycarboxylic acids has been investigated successfully from the point of view of acidity of alcoholic hydroxyls. The only data which we found referred to citric acid ; however, these were theoretical values1.
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References
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BECK, M., HALMOS, M. Acidic Dissociation Constant of Alcoholic Hydroxyls of Oxycarboxylic Acids: Mandelic Acid. Nature 186, 388–389 (1960). https://doi.org/10.1038/186388a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/186388a0
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