Organic elements summary

The emphasis on particular elements will change from time to time in response to changing needs of an organization. The summary that follows identifies many important elements. Individuals may add or delete elements. Some seek to give emphasis to particular elements. Some elements overlap with others, since elements are not completely independent. 

To start our approach we divide this chapter into parts. In the first part we outline the general chemical element content of all organisms (Sections 4.2-4.4) next, we look at the uses of non-metal elements and their in small molecule combinations (Sections 4.5 1.8) while in the third part we extend this description to their major biopolymers (Sections 4.9-4.13). Section 4.14 is a summary of these sections. In Sections 4.15 and 4.16 we examine the metal ion content of cells and combinations of these ions with organic molecules. The final sections integrate these descriptions with those of the principles of bioenergetics outlined in Chapter 3. 

This chapter will emphasize the synthesis, stabilization, spectroscopic and structural aspects, reactivity and synthetic use of these compounds. For completeness, a summary of the subject previously reviewed3-10 will be included together with recent examples from the literature. The material will be divided into three sections preparations, spectroscopic and structural studies (with some characteristic spectroscopic and structural data) and reactivity (with some applications in organic synthesis). Each part will be organized into sections dealing with a particular element in the order germanium, tin and then lead. 

In summary, some qualitative inferences on the possible role of mineral matter and selected organic functional groups in determining product compositions in coal pyrolysis can be made from the present data. More quantitative information could be obtained by detailed spectroscopic and elemental analyses of the organic material and mineral matter in chars from coals allowed to proceed to varying extents of pyrolytic decomposition under well-defined reaction conditions. Some work to this end is currently in progress at CMU and MIT. 

Summary The possibility of direct synthesis of silicon oi anic compounds based on hydrolysis-resistant organic derivatives of silicon by using biogenic silica (from siliceous rocks) as a new raw material is discussed. The complex triethylphosphate with silica, the ammonium salts of tricatechol, and humic acids of monosilicic acids were obtained. Products were identified by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, IR spectrophotometry, or elemental analysis. 

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