Zinc(II), Cadmium(II), Mercury(II), and Lead(II) Complexes of N-Carboxymethyl-D,L-threonine in Aqueous Solution

The formation of complexes of Zn(II), Cd(II), Hg(II), and Pb(II) and N-carboxymethyl-D,L-threonine (H₂CMT, H₂L) in aqueous solutions has been studied by spectrophotometric and potentiometric methods. The complexation model for each system has been established by the HYPERQUAD program from the potentiometric data. Three different behaviors are found: ML₂H, MLH, ML, MLOH, and ML₂ complexes are formed by Zn(II) and Cd(II) ions, ML₂H, ML, MLOH, and ML₂ are formed by Hg(II) ion, and only 1/1 complexes MLH, ML, and MLOH are formed by the Pb(II) ion. The formation constants determined for all these complexes allow simulation of experimental titration curves with good agreement. The speciation of multimetal systems with H₂CMT shows that this compound is a good and selective ligand at low pH for the Hg(II) ion.