Review: New Advances in the Coordination Chemistry of the Beryllium(ii)

Beryllium and its compounds are extremely toxic, but the biological mechanism of their toxicity is largely speculative. Beryllium is the second lightest metal after lithium and it is a component of materials indispensable in today's nuclear, aerospace and electronic industries. Concern about possible pollution by beryllium-containing materials is renewing interest in the chemistry of the metal. Therefore, there is much interest in the search for suitable ligands as antidotes for beryllium poisoning. The more recent studies on the coordination chemistry of beryllium(II) have concentrated attention on ligands of the following types: (a) ligands with oxo, oxocar-boxylic or carboxytic groups; (b) ligands with carboxylic-phosphonic or phosphonic groups; (c) polyaminocarboxylic ligands as sequestering agents.