Question

Hello.
We have made a Fe-Glycine and Fe-Salicylic Acid complexes in Lab.
There is a problem, after dehydration (letting it become dry in the air) , it becomes water insoluble.
Could you assist us?
What should we do?

Answer 1

Answer: these complexes have vary strong tendency toward hydrolysis. Letting these substances become dry in the air caused oxidation of the organic part and the formation of insoluble inorganic iron compounds like Fe(OH)3, Fe2O3 and so on. Perhaps the organometallic complexes do not exist in your sample now. Therefore, the best solution is to synthesize these compounds again using stabilizers preventing hydrolysis and use the vacuum drying at ambient temperature afterwards.