Rational Design of Metal Ion Sequestering Agents

The discriminate bonding of metal ions is a challenge to the synthetic chemist and a phenomenon of considerable practical importance.1 An important feature of many technical applications is the specific or preferential binding of a single metal ion in the presence of many metals. Examples range from large-volume uses (e.g. ferric EDTA as a plant food, calcium complexing agents as water softeners or anticaking formulations) to very high technology applications (technetium complexation in radiopharmaceuticals, synthetic metalloenzymes). We are interested in efficient and discriminate binding of actinides for waste stream remediation. Actinides represent a major and long-lived contaminant in nuclear waste. While the separation of actinides from other radioactive components of waste, such as Sr and Cs, is relatively well established, the separation of actinides from each other and in complex solutions (e.g. those found in tank wastes) is not as well resolved. The challenge of designing metal-specific (actinide) ligands is facilitated by examples from nature. Bacteria synthesize Fe(III)-specific ligands, called siderophores, to sequester Fe(III) from the environment and return it to the cell. The similarities between Fe(III) and Pu(IV) (their charge-to-size ratios and acidity), make the siderophores prototypical for designing actinide-specific ligands. The chelating groups present in siderophores are usually hydroxamic acids and catecholamides. We have developed derivatives of these natural products which have improved properties. The catechol derivatives are the 2,3-dihydroxyterephthalamides (TAMs), and 3,4-dihydroxysulfonamides (SFAMs), and the hydroxamic acid derivatives are three isomers of hydroxypyridinones, 1,2- HOPO, 3,2-HOPO, and 3,4-HOPO. All of these ligands are attached to molecular backbones by amides and a very important feature of HOPO and CAM ligands is a strong hydrogen bonds formed between the amide proton and the adjacent phenolic oxygen in the metal complex, thereby enhancing the stability (Figure 1)