Natural organic components

Cassar, M., G. V. Robins, R. A. Fletton, and A. Alstin (1983), Organic components in historical non-metallic seals investigated using C-13-NMR spectroscopy, Nature 303, 238-239. 

Organic matter is also the essential component of natural soils and its association with microorganisms may influence the behavior and fate of toxic metals. A variety of batch complexation experiments were performed by Borrok et al. (2007) in single, binary and ternary systems for the three components natural organic matter (NOM), bacterium (B. subtilis) and metals (Pb, Cu, Cd, and Ni) to determine the significance of ternary complexation. They found that the formation of bacteria-metal-NOM complex is a rapid, fully-reversible chemical process. The stability of bacteria-metal-NOM complexes increases with the decrease of pH. All NOM fractions form ternary complexes to similar extents at circumneutral pH, but humic acid becomes the dominant NOM fraction in ternary complexes at low pH. The abundance of humic acid in ternary form is greatest with Ni or Cd systems and less with Pb and Cu systems. Their results suggest that... 

Humic acids (HA) and fulvic acids (FA) are the main components of humic substances (HS), which are the most chemically and biochemically active and widely spread fractions of nonliving natural organic matter in all terrestrial and aquatic environments. They comprise a chemically and physically heterogeneous group of substances with colloidal, polydis-persed, polyelectrolyte characteristics and mixed aliphatic and aromatic nature (Senesi and Loffredo 1999). 

This example (the cyanohydrin reaction) appears to me to provide a simple solution for the natural asymmetric synthesis. The formation of the sugar, as the plant physiologists assume, occurs in the chlorophyll grain, which itself is composed of optically active substances.. . . The prepared sugar is released and later on used by the plant, as is known, for the preparation of other organic components. Their asymmetry is thus explainedfrom the nature of the building material. Of course, they also provide material for new chlorophyll... 

Hybrid polymers are composites containing one organic component (e.g polymer) and another part, distinct in nature to the matrix (e.g. the nanomaterial), and these parts interact through chemical bonding so that the polymer layer bonded to the filler is distinct from the polymer matrix. The properties of these materials are improved by the introduction of the nanomaterial into the polymer matrix. Some of the properties that can be enhanced include the Young s modulus, resistance to flammability, low permeability to gases, and increased heat resistance. 

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