Kinetic Investigation on the Reaction between Cu(II) and Excess D-penicillamine in Aqueous Media

The kinetics and mechanism of reduction of Cu(II) with an excess D-penicillamine have been examined at pH = 6.2 and 0.60M in ionic strength. The reaction at the initial stage is biphasic with a rapid complexation process to give "red" transient complex of $[Cu(II)(pen)_2]^2$- that is partially reduced to another transient "brown" intermediate. The "brown" intermediate is finally reduced to diamagnetic "yellow" complex, $[Cu(I)(Hpen)]_n$. The final reduction process is pseudo-first order in ["brown" transient] disappearance $with {\kappa} = {{\kappa}_{3a} + {\kappa}_{3b}[pen]^{2-}},$ where ${\kappa}_{3a} = (5.0{\pm}0.8){\times}10^{-3}sec^{-1}$ and ${\kappa} = (0.14{\pm}0.02) M^{-1}sec^{-1}$ at $25^{\circ}C$. The activation parameters for the $[H_2pen]$-independent and $[H_2pen]$-dependent paths are ${\Delta}H^{\neq} = (52{\pm}5)kJmol^{-1},$ and ${\Delta}S^{\neq} = ( - 27{\pm}3)JK^{-1}mo^{l-1},$ and ${\Delta}H^{\neq} = (56{\pm}2)kJmol^{-1}$ and ${\Delta} S^{\neq} = ( - 18{\pm}0.7)JK^{-1}mol^{-1}$ respectively. The nature of "brown" intermediate is not clearly identified, but this intermediate seems to be in the mixed-valence state, judging from the kinetic and spectroscopic informations.