Change in Crown Ether Shape and Solvation upon Sodium Salt Addition

We will study the behaviour of the 15-crown-5 crown ether – a non-ionic cyclic complexing agent – dissolved in dimethylformamide (DMF) with and without the presence of a sodium salt. This will provide us with important information about the conformation and solvation of the Na+-15-crown-5 complexes for our study of diffusional behaviour of Na+ ions in solutions of negatively charged carbon nanotubes.