Some Aspects of the Bioinorganic

Some Aspects of the Bioinorganic Chemistry of Zinc Reg H. Prince... 

The kinetic and reactivity aspects of the coordination chemistry of, inter alia, zinc1469 and cadmium, have featured in the past in many full and comprehensive reviews9-11,16-226 which also include an account of these aspects of their bioinorganic chemistry here we shall survey some recent studies in this area.1468o-h... 

Besides color, sensitization, and light-harvesting efficiency, the actual reactivity of the excited states populated is therefore a crucial property. Some aspects of relevance for bioinorganic and biomimetic systems will be discussed in the following chapters. 

From a bioinorganic perspective, one of the most interesting aspect of the marine geochemistry of manganese involves oxidation by bacteria. Although thermodynamically favorable, the chemical oxidation of Mn(II) to Mn(IV) by oxygen is exceedingly slow at the seawater pH. The oxidation of Mn(II) in the surface ocean is thus bacterially mediated (Sunda and Huntsman, 1988). In some cases, Mn(II) oxidation is effected... 

More extensive examples can be found in specialist texts dedicated to bioinorganic chemistry. It is not the intent to do more here than present some highlights of this increasingly important field of coordination chemistry, sufficient to represent the field and link it to the more traditional aspects of the subject. 

Metal ions are required for many critical functions in humans. Scarcity of some metal ions can lead to disease. Well-known examples include pernicious anemia resulting from iron deficiency, growth retardation arising from insufficient dietary zinc, and heart disease in infants owing to copper deficiency. The ability to recognize, to understand at the molecular level, and to treat diseases caused by inadequate metal-ion function constitutes an important aspect of medicinal bioinorganic chemistry. 

This journal publishes fundamental studies in all phases of inorganic chemistry. Coverage includes experimental and theoretical reports on the synthesis, structures, and properties of new compounds quantitative studies of structure and thermodynamics, kinetics, and mechanisms of inorganic reactions bioinorganic chemistry and some aspects of organometallic chemistry, solid-state phenomena, and chemical bonding theory. Short papers (notes), full papers, and preliminary communications of an urgent nature are published. 

In this introductory chapter, some general aspects of bioinorganic chemistry will be dealt with. In Chapter 2 a section of the periodic table of elements is presented, indicating the transition metals that are catalytically active in vivo. Table 1 lists several elements that are essential to life, together with some statistical information and a few comments about their biological role. The compilation is limited and restricted to some of the most important transition elements, the nonmetal Se, and the alkaline earth metals Ca and Mg. 

More recently, the various aspects of light-responsive and photoreactive inorganic compounds in biological and bioinspired systems have been addressed (3-6). In the present contribution, some fundamental principles and first advances of the rapidly evolving fields of bioinorganic photochemistry and biomimetic photocatalysis will be discussed. No attempt will be made to provide a comprehensive coverage of the relevant literature, which is widespread across a bunch of different disciplines... 

The purpose of this chapter is to familiarize the reader with the current status of activities in the application of hydrostatic pressure to mechanistic studies in the areas of inorganic and organometallic chemistry, as well as in the blossoming field of bioinorganic chemistry. Although the basic principles involved in high pressure kinetics for reactions in general have been the subject of many reports [12-14], some essential aspects and the most frequently used methods will be presented... 

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