Spectrophotometric determination of copper complexation properties of new amphiphilic dithiocarbamates

Amphiphilic dithiocarbamate chelators were synthesized to afford the abilit y to traverse biological membranes. Comparison of copper (II) stability con stants for dithiocarbamates was accomplished by a competition reaction betw een copper oxinates and copper dithiocarbamates using UV/VIS spectrophotome try. The stability constants of mixed copper hydroxyquinoline-dithiocarbama te complexes were calculated by a continuous variation and subtractive spec trophotometric methods. Using these techniques, the competitive stability c onstants log K-c were determined as 1.53, 1.95 and 2.03 for amphiphilic dit hiocarbamates and 3.52 for dibutyldithiocarbamate. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scienc e B.V. All rights reserved.