Solubility of Phenylboronic Acid and its Cyclic Esters in Organic Solvents

The solubilities of phenylboronic acid, its pinacol ester and azaester in organic solvents (chloroform, 3-pentanone, acetone, dipropyl ether and methylcyclohexane) have been determined experimentally by a dynamic method, in which the disappearance of turbidity was determined by measuring of light intensity using a luminance probe. Phenylboronic acid has high solubility in ether and ketones, moderate in chloroform and very low in hydrocarbon. Pinacol ester and azaester show better solubility than the parent acid in all tested solvents. For pinacol ester differences between particular solvents are small, while for azaester the differences are significant. For both esters the highest solubility is observed in chloroform and the lowest in the hydrocarbon. The results have been correlated by the Wilson, NRTL and Redlich–Kister equations. For the phenylboronic acid better correlation of the data is obtained by polynomials in comparison with the above equations. It is connected with additional acid-anhydride equilibrium in the system. The influence of polarity of the solvents on the solubility is discussed.