Abstract
DESPITE the many important contributions that have been made to the literature during the past century, no completely satisfactory theory of cation toxicity has been formulated. Blake1 first concluded that there was a correlation between degree of toxicity and atomic weight (hence ‘heavy-metal’ poisons). Matthews2 and Jones3 later pointed out a relationship between metal ion toxicity and the ‘solution pressure’ (standard electrode potential) of the corresponding metals. Seifriz4 considered various other chemical properties of the ions in his attempt to find a satisfactory chemical explanation for the relative toxicity of cations. Shaw5–7, basing his arguments on results obtained with enzymes, postulated that metal ions killed aquatic organisms by combining with an essential group (probably—SH) on a key enzyme. Correlation with metal sulphide insolubility was demonstrated. An attempt was also made6 to relate the relative inhibitory efficiency of bivalent metal ions toward the enzyme urease with metal complex stability. At that time (early 1953), however, the field of co-ordination chemistry had not reached a stage of sufficient maturity for such a comparison to be successfully made. The explosive growth that has occurred during the past decade in our knowledge of the chemistry of co-ordination compounds necessitates a re-examination of the intriguing possibility that there exists a relationship between metal complex stability and the toxicity of metal ions to living organisms.
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References
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SHAW, W. Cation Toxicity and the Stability of Transition-Metal Complexes. Nature 192, 754–755 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/192754a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/192754a0
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