Weak hydrogen bonds dethrone copper as the most stable metal binder, opening a new path for metal selection
Copper has been knocked off the top of a stability ranking it had dominated for decades. Without altering the atoms directly bonded to the metal, a KAIST research team reversed the longstanding trend in which copper generally forms the most stable complexes by tuning only the weak hydrogen bonds in its surrounding environment. The findings, which appear in the Journal of the American Chemical…
For decades, copper has been considered the most stable metal binder, ranking at the top of the stability hierarchy established by the Irving–Williams series. However, a research team from KAIST has challenged this long-standing trend by manipulating only the weak hydrogen bonds surrounding the metal, rather than altering the metal itself. This discovery, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, opens up new possibilities for selective metal separation, recognition, and catalyst design.
Professor Yunjung Baek and her team developed a metal complex using a flavin-based ligand and demonstrated that the stability of copper complexes could be reversed by adjusting the hydrogen bonding in their environment. By constraining copper's geometric distortion, the hydrogen bonding network reduced its stabilization, leading to an anti-Irving–Williams trend. This means that copper, which had previously been the most stable, now ranks lower in stability compared to other metals like manganese, iron, and zinc.
The study's findings suggest that the relative stability of metal complexes is not solely determined by the intrinsic properties of each metal, but can be influenced by the surrounding environment. This principle could be applied to develop systems that selectively bond with specific metals, providing a foundation for more efficient metal extraction and recovery processes.
Additionally, the approach has implications for catalyst design, where the surrounding environment can be tuned to enhance the performance of desired metals.
The research was presented at the International Conference on Coordination Chemistry (ICCC) in Denmark, where the study's first author, Haneul Im, received the Best Poster Award. The findings challenge the conventional understanding of metal stability and demonstrate the potential of environmental factors, such as hydrogen bonding, in shaping the behavior of metal complexes.
Written by urgent.news from Phys.org's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
