Nickel in plants

Differential pulse polarography [51] and adsorption voltammetry [52] have both been employed for the determination of nickel in plant tissues. 

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1973) The Analysis of Agricultural Materials - Nickel in Plant Material, Method 52, Technical Bulletin RB 427, HMSO, London, UK. 

D. Vendramini, V. Grassi, E.A.G. Zagatto, Spectrophotometric flow injection determination of copper and nickel in plant digests exploiting differential kinetic analysis and multi site detection, Anal. Chim. Acta 570 (2006) 124. 

Thus, a specific biological role is known for nickel in plants. No such specific role has been defined for animals. Nickel can activate many enzymes vitro (Table I), but its role as a specific cofactor for any enzyme has not been shown in animals. 

Until the discovery in 1975 of nickel in jack bean urease (which, 50 years previously, had been the first enzyme to be isolated in crystalline form and was thought to be metal-free) no biological role for nickel was known. Ureases occur in a wide variety of bacteria and plants, catalyzing the hydrolysis of urea,... 

The most important undesired metallic impurities are nickel and vanadium, present in porphyrinic structures that originate from plants and are predominantly found in the heavy residues. In addition, iron may be present due to corrosion in storage tanks. These metals deposit on catalysts and give rise to enhanced carbon deposition (nickel in particular). Vanadium has a deleterious effect on the lattice structure of zeolites used in fluid catalytic cracking. A host of other elements may also be present. Hydrodemetallization is strictly speaking not a catalytic process, because the metallic elements remain in the form of sulfides on the catalyst. Decomposition of the porphyrinic structures is a relatively rapid reaction and as a result it occurs mainly in the front end of the catalyst bed, and at the outside of the catalyst particles. 

The zone elution method has been used for quantitative estimation or recovery of heavy metals in plants and vegetable juices [29], mercury (11) in river and waste waters [52], zinc in different environmental samples [46], nickel and copper in alloys [53], zirconium in Mg-Al alloys [22], cobalt, zinc, nickel, and copper in natural water and alloy samples [54], thiocyanate in spiked photogenic waste water [55], and aluminum in bauxite ores [42],... 

Y. Guo, E. George, and H. Marschner, Contribution of an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus to the uptake of cadmium and nickel in bean and maize plants. Plant and Soil 7774 195 (1996). 

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) study of 165 sludges showed nickel concentrations ranging from 2 to 3520mg/kg (dry basis).18 Nickel toxicity may develop in plants from application of municipal wastewater biosolids on acid soils. Nickel reduces yields for a variety of crops including oats, mustard, turnips, and cabbage. 

Generally water is used, in a nickel sulfate plant for process reaction, cooling of reactor, crystallization, plant washdown of spills, pump leaks and general cleanup. The water used in the process reaction is for preliminary preparation of the spent plating solution. In other units, especially where impure nickel raw material is used, the wastewater is often recycled. Wastewaters from this plant contain contact and noncontact water, which predominantly contain nickel as a major impurity. 

Results of raw waste load found in verification sampling for a nickel sulfate plant are given in Table 22.14. 

General wastewater treatment process flow diagram at a typical nickel sulfate plant is shown in Figure 22.12. 

Misra S.G. Pandey G. Evaluation of a suitable extractant for available nickel in soils. Plant Soil 1974 41 697-700. 

Sediment nickel concentrations are grossly elevated near the nickel-copper smelter at Sudbury, Ontario, and downstream from steel manufacturing plants. Sediments from nickel-contaminated sites have between 20 and 5000 mg Ni/kg DW these values are at least 100 times lower at comparable uncontaminated sites (Chau and Kulikovsky-Cordeiro 1995). A decrease in the pH of water caused by acid rain may release some of the nickel in sediments to the water column (NRCC 1981). Transfer of nickel from water column to sediments is greatest when sediment particle size is comparatively small and sediments contain high concentrations of clays or organics (Bubb and Lester 1996). 

Kramer, U., J.D. Cotter-Howells, J.M. Chamock, AJ.M. Baker, and J.A.C. Smith. 1996. Free histidine as a metal chelator in plants that accumulate nickel. Nature 379 (6566) 635-638. 

Lee, J., R.D. Reeves, R.P. Brooks, and T. Jaffre. 1978. The relation between nickel and citric acid in some nickel-accumulating plants. Phytochemistry 17 1033-1035. 

Memon, A.R., S. Ito, and M. Yatazawa. 1980. Taxonomic characteristics in accumulating cobalt and nickel in the temperate forest vegetation of central Japan. Soil Sci. Plant Nutr. 26 271-280. 

Strontium, barium, manganese, copper, molybdenum, and nickel are elements of strong accumulation in plant species of African Savanna ecosystems, in spite of different content in soils and soil-forming rocks. The Cb values are >1. The other elements, like beryllium, zirconium, titanium and vanadium, are less taken up by plants and their Cb values are less than 0.5. These refer to various exposure pathways to both microbes and plants as links in biogeochemical food webs. 

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