The physical properties and unusual pyrolysis behaviour of a supramolecular complex of β-cyclodextrin and potassium ferrioxalate

Abstract

The thermal pyrolysis behaviour of a complex of β-cyclodextrin (CD) and potassium ferrioxalate (PF) was analyzed using gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Two rare inorganic ions: CO₂²⁺ and O₄⁺, neither of which was found in the cases of free β-CD and PF, were synchronously observed during the decomposition of the complex. Our observations led to proposed formation mechanisms of the ions, in which the structural transformation of a metastable intermediate ion (C₂H₄O₃⁺) was employed to qualitatively explain our data. Besides this, the formation, structure and magnetic properties of the complex were evaluated carefully. First, XPS analysis indicates a decrease of electron densities of Fe(III) ions in the presence of β-CD. We think that this is due to an effect of the noncovalent complexation between PF and β-CD. This gives an indication on the effect of second sphere coordination of β-CD on the electronic structure of the Fe(III) in the first coordination sphere. Second, structural changes in stacking modes and morphologies provide further support for the noncovalent complexation. For example, the surface feature of the complex gives us an impression that both β-CD and PF are evenly dispersed with each other. Also, the complex presents a uniform sponge-like porous nanostructure with diameters of less than 50 nm. This seems to be an important reason for those changes that occurred in the thermal analysis. Finally, the result of magnetic experiments implies that the coordination compound PF upon complexation with β-CD will experience a gradual decrease in magnetization with the increase of magnetic fields. These observations have significant implications for a better understanding of the importance of the construction and deconstruction of a second sphere coordination in modifying the physical properties of an σ-coordination compound.