Studies of the role of water on some imine–acid complexes by means of Raman spectroscopy
The percentages of protonation were determined for a conjugated Schiff base trans, trans-2,4-heptadienylidene tert-butylamine in the presence of 3-chloropropionic acid (CPR) and dichloroacetic acid (DCA) in three solvents of different polarities. In dioxane, a solvent of low polarity, protonation is only important for the strong acid DCA (50–60%). By using solvents of higher polarities, protonation is seen to increase and is almost complete for DCA in ethanol. When water molecules are added to these systems, hydrolysis of the Schiff base, measured inside the time span of the experiments (10 min), occurs readily in dioxane, is very slow in a chloroform–dioxane mixture (9:1), and is totally absent in a mixture of ethanol–dioxane (1:9). Results indicate that water does not mediate protonation in all three sets of solvent combinations. The results are also discussed in terms of the possible role that water molecules could have in the visual and bacterial pigments.