Separations chemistry of toxic metals

摘要

Sequestering and removing toxic metal ions from their surroundings is an increasingly active area of research and is gaining importance in light of current environmental contamination problems both within the DOE complex and externally. The selectivity of the chelators is critical to the goal of removing the toxic metals from their less toxic counterparts. The approach was to build a ligand framework that complements the unique characteristics of the toxic metal (size, charge, and shape) while minimizing interactions with non-toxic metals. The authors have designed ligands exhibiting specificity for the target metals; they have synthesized, characterized, and tested these ligands and have shown that they exhibit the proposed selectivity and cooperative binding effects.