Discuss the relevance of hard-soft acid-base theory to the design of chelating a

Question

Discuss the relevance of hard-soft acid-base theory to the design of chelating agents for treatment of metal poisoning and to the natural metabolism of metals. Use the reaction of mercury with A to Illustrate your answer. Explain the importance of each of the terms molecular homology and biomethylation to the transport and toxicology of mercury in humans. Mercury forms amalgams with a variety of other transition metals. How have these contributed to historic and Contemporary levels of environmental pollution by this heavy metal?

Explanation / Answer

Ans 1: Chemical affinity between a metal ion and a complexing agent can be best described
based on the hard-soft-acid-base theory. According to HSAB concept, hard acids prefer binding to the hard bases to give ionic complexes, whereas the soft acids prefer binding to soft bases to give covalent complexes.

Mercury is a soft acid and said compound A is a soft base which indicated by -SH functional group

2 R-SH + Hg2+-----> R-S-------Hg--------S-R + H2

The interaction between a chelating agent and a toxic metal can be expressed in terms of stability constants.

HSAB theory guide to select proper Acid- Base pair for metal-chelating agent complex which have high stability constants. This stable complex is more suitable for treatment of metal poisoining and natural metabolism of metals.

Ans 2:molecular homology indicate an uptake of mercuric conjugates of cysteine occurs at the site of one or more amino acid transporters.

Ans 3:

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