Review: new advances in the coordination chemistry of the beryllium(II)

Beryllium and its compounds are extremely toxic, but the biological mechani sm of their toxicity is largely speculative. Beryllium is the second lighte st metal after lithium and it is a component of materials indispensable in today's nuclear, aerospace and electronic industries. Concern about possibl e pollution by beryllium-containing materials is renewing interest in the c hemistry of the metal. Therefore, there is much interest in the search for suitable ligands as antidotes for beryllium poisoning. The more recent stud ies on the coordination chemistry of beryllium(II) have concentrated attent ion on ligands of the following types: (a) ligands with ore, oxocarboxylic or carboxylic groups; (b) ligands with carboxylic-phosphonic or phosphonic groups; (c) polyaminocarboxylic ligands as sequestering agents.