A simple method is presented for
the consecutive determination of protonation constants of polyprotic
acids based on their formation curves. The procedure is based on generally
known equations that describe dissociation equilibria. It has been
demonstrated through simulation that the values obtained through the
proposed method are sufficiently consistent with the actual values.
In contrast with the universally known and applied Bjerrum’s
method, no differences in the accuracy of determination of subsequent
protonation constant values are observed. The proposed method requires
the value of one of the protonation constants (e.g., of the first
one, K
1) of the polyprotic acid. An iterative
method is proposed for finding the value, starting from approximate
values determined from the environment of point n̅ = 0.5(n̅-average degree of protonation).
Apart from high accuracy, the proposed method also has didactic advantages
because it illustrates the problem of multiple acid equilibria in
a visual (almost graphic) manner. The proposed method may also provide
initial constant values for numerical methods of nonlinear approximation
of the formation curve.
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