Weak alkali and alkaline earth metal complexes of low molecular weight ligands in aqueous solution

This work is aimed at reviewing the chemical literature dealing with thermodynamic aspects of the weak complex formation (species with log K values less than about 3) between alkali and alkaline earth metal ions with low molecular weight inorganic and organic ligands in aqueous solution. The following ligands (up to hexavalent anions) were examined in detail: (i) hydroxide, chloride, sulfate, carbonate and phosphate as inorganic, and (ii) carboxylates, amines, amino acids, complexones and nucleotides as organic ligands. The paper also identifies the main reasons responsible for the dispersion of the stability data on ion pairs in the literature. When possible, the trend of stability for the…