Compounds, reagents and procedures for determining cations

Abstract From the Canadian patent

The invention is reagents and procedures for determining an amount of cations present in a sample the, reagent comprising one or more chromogenic cryptand compounds of formula I, (I), wherein, k and j, either same or different are equal, to 1 to about 5;, m and n, either same or different are equal, to 0 to about 4;, a and e, either same or different are equal, to 0 to about 2;, b and d, either same or different are equal to, 0 to about 5;, R, either same or different is hydrogen, lower alkyl, lower alkylidene lower alkenyl, allyl, or aryl; and, -Q- is wherein X is CH, N, or COH; and, Y includes , and, except that when Q is , wherein Y is selected from the 2,4,6-trinitrophenylazo, …