Formation of poly(acrylhydroxamic acid)‐copper chelates

In order to clarify the mechanism of the catalytic reactions of poly(acrylhydroxamic acid)‐copper chelates on the decomposition reaction of hydrogen peroxide, the stability constants of these chelates were measured by using a modified BJERRUM'S method, and each fraction of chemical species was estimated on the basis of chelate chemical theory. The chelate formation proceeds through the following two steps: magnified image where HL means the ligand group, b1 and b2 mean the stability constants of CuL+ and CuL2, respectively. The value of b1 decreased with the increase of the ratio of the total concentration of cupric ion to the total concentration of the ligand, TCu/THL and with the increase of the molecular weight of the ligand polymer. The variation of the value of b2 was more significant than the variation of the value of b1. Therefore, it was confirmed that the increase of TCu/THL and the increase of the molecular weight of the ligand polymer resulted in the increase of the fraction of CuL+ species in the chelate‐polymer.