Sorption of metal ions from aqueous solutions to birch wood and spruce heartwood and sapwood has been studied. Functional groups in wood were determined by acid-base titrations. The sorption of metal ions to wood of the different tree species was investigated by a column chromatographic technique. The mechanism of sorption is mainly ion exchange by complexation of metal ions to the functional g...

Fast-growing trees such as Salix viminalis L. and Populus tremula L. are well suited to phytoremediate heavy metal contaminated soils. However, information on tree performance, particularly leaf function, under conditions of heavy metal contamination is scarce. We used yearly coppiced saplings of S. viminalis and P. tremula growing in model ecosytems to test four hypotheses: (1) heavy metal con...

Upon storage under aerobic conditions metallothioneins (MTs) form a new species, which is characterized by a molecular mass approximately twice the size of monomeric MT and shifted (113/111)Cd- and (1)H-NMR resonances. The investigation of this oxidative dimerization process by NMR spectroscopy allowed us to structurally characterize this MT species that has been described to occur in vivo and ...

There has been increasing environmental concerns on the metallic pollution in recent decades. The conventional technologies used for metal extraction are ion-exchange resins, polymer ultrafiltration and microemulsion. The whole extraction mechanism can be divided into 4 steps: 1) The binding of dissolved metal to active sites, 2) Separation of the metal load extractant from the lean phase, 3) R...

A sequential separation scheme has been devised for the quantitative analytical separation of 27 different metal ions. Five different Chromatographic and ion-exchange columns are used to separate the metal ions into groups. The metal ions of each group are eluted separately from each column by means of selective eluents. Following separation, the metal ions are determined by titrimetry, flame s...

There are some discrepancies between the behaviours of the metal-ligand biosystems and the lifeless systems. The participation of macromolecular ligands might be considered as the most important origin of these discrepancies. The amphivalency, flexibility, adaptation to coordination configurations and the availability of the metal-binding sites determine the characteristics of the metal(1igand)...

The replacement of an acetate function of the macrocyclic DOTA4-(DO3A-Nprop4-) or the acyclic DTPA5- in terminal position (DTTA-Nprop5-) has been recently shown to result in a significant increase of the water exchange rate on the Gd3+ complexes, which makes these chelates potential contrast agents for MRI applications. Here, two novel and straightforward synthetic routes to H4DO3A-Nprop are de...

The ability of tetraazalene radical bridging ligands to mediate exceptionally strong magnetic exchange coupling across a range of transition metal complexes is demonstrated. The redox-active bridging ligand N,N',N'',N'''-tetra(2-methylphenyl)-2,5-diamino-1,4-diiminobenzoquinone (NMePhLH2) was metalated to give the series of dinuclear complexes [(TPyA)2M2(NMePhL2-)]2+ (TPyA = tris(2-pyridylmethy...

Potential applications of nickel nanoparticles demand the synthesis of self-protected nickel nanoparticles by different synthesis techniques. A novel and simple technique for the synthesis of self-protected nickel nanoparticles is realized by the inter-matrix synthesis of nickel nanoparticles by cation exchange reduction in two types of resins. Two different polymer templates namely strongly ac...