Correlations between complex stability and charge distribution in the ground state for CaII and NaI complexes of charge transfer chromo- and fluoroionophores

Several series of crown fluoro-chromo-ionophores covering a broad spectral range are investigated experimentally and compared to their theoretically studied dimethylamino (DMA) analogues. It is shown that the logarithm of the complex stability constants log KS for NaI and CaII ions do not correlate with the observed complexation-induced shift. Likewise, an unsatisfactory correlation is found between the local charge density on the amino nitrogen of the DMA dyes and log KS. However, using the charge of the whole dimethylamino group instead strongly improves this correlation. This can be understood by considering pyramidalization and hyperconjugation effects on the amino nitrogen. The observed correlation allows a novel approach to the design of fluoroionophores with optimized properties.