Proton nuclear magnetic resonance ( 1 H-NMR) spectroscopy was used to study the complexation reaction between Mg 2? , Ca 2? , Sr 2? and Ba 2? ions and 60-crown-20 in a series of binary mixtures of deuterated acetonitrile (AN), nitromethane (NM) and D 2 O at 27°C. Formation constants of the 1:1 complexes were determined through computer fitting of the chemical shift/mol ratio data and found to vary in the order of Ba 2? [ Sr 2? [ Mg 2? & Ca 2? . The influence of the solvent composition on the stability of the resulting complexes was also discussed. In all cases, the changes in the stability constants with the solvent composition were monotonic and showed a good correlation with the inherent solvation ability of the pure solvents which form the mixture.