Fifth Annual

Removal of heavy metals will allow elimination of toxic substances from environmental samples or will prevent their introduction into the environment. Silica gel will be used to form a complex with other compounds such as nitrilitriacetic acid (NTA), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and 2mercaptoethanol by an acid catalyzed condensation. Compounds such as NTA were suspended with silica gel in toluene and refluxed using a condenser and a Dean-Stark tube. Water was removed by azeotropic distillation, and the progress of the reaction could be followed by noting the volume of water produced. Presumably, the NTA condensed by elimination of water between silica and the carboxyl group and a quadridentate ligand was converted to a tridentate one (O, N, O coordination). The complex would be used to remove nickel (II) and other metal from standard solutions. Atomic spectrometer would be used to detect the removal of nickel (II) compounds. The complex is expected to remove most of the heavy metals from the solutions. Since, this will be a cheaper alternative to remove metals than the other compounds available in market; it could be used at large scale. We are grateful for a generous gift of silica gel from Metre-General, Inc. 21. Ekta Shah; Bill Baker “Bioactivity of Antarctic Sponges” An orange/tan membranous sponge was collected from the benthos around Palmer Station, Antarctica. In ongoing studies of natural products chemistry of Antarctic invertebrates, this organism was extracted and subject to bioassay for antibiotic activity and cytotoxic activity. Bioactivity studies will be discussed.