Experiment Cu - Stability of Complexes of Cu(II) in solution

Introduction
In this experiment the aims were:
To synthesise and purify the following compounds from copper oxide:
1. Copper (II) sulphate pentahydrate CuSO4.5H2O
2. Tetraamino copper (II) sulphate hydrate [Cu(NH3)4]SO4.H2O
3. Bis-ethylenediamine copper (II) sulphate [Cu(en)2]SO4.H2O
To take a UV-visible spectrum of the 3 compounds above in solution and use to calculate molar
absorption coefficients and ligand field parameters.
To take electrochemical measurements to calculate ligand field parameters and stability constants,
the most stable complex should have the most negative G value.
Ethyldiamine (en) is a bidentate ligand , its structure is shown below in figure 1. It has two donor atoms
which are highlighted in red. Replacing monodentate (H2O) ligands with a bidentate ligand such as (en)
increases number of products and therefore increases entropy, the value of free energy, G will be more
negative.The complex formed, [Cu(en)3)]2+ is the most stable due to the chelate