Chelation is a unique aspect of chemistry that involves the complexation, or stabilization, of metal ion

naturally found in aqueous solutions. Chelation effects are utilized in various industries providing
benefits that include cleaning, water treatment, metalworking, and the prevention of mineral deposit
spotting of plants grown in nurseries and agricultural applications. Chelation basically creates a ring
structure around metal ions preventing them from combining with other metal ions that would
otherwise result in insoluble formations.
General Description:
When positively charged metal ions such as calcium, iron, manganese, copper, magnesium, etc., are
found naturally in aqueous solutions, they are not in a segregated environment. Rather, they are
mixed in with other anions and by water molecules which are constantly trying to "hydrate" these ionic
species. These water molecules, and other complex molecules (including chelating agents) that
associate with these metal ions are generally called "ligands."
When a metal ion creates a complex with a ligand, a ring structure will result. This ring structure
changes the character of the metal ion - and the reactions that it could normally undergo. The term
that is designated to this chemical reaction is Chelation . The ligand that reacts with the metal is given
the term chelate or chelating agent. SPER Chemical manufactures a variety of chelating agents
including: Sequest-All EMC, Linear 2, and Sequest-All.Refer to these products and their
corresponding agricultural products that include beneficial bio-growth control. There is a similar
chemical reaction called "sequestration", which is defined as a formation of a water soluble, stable
chelate. Sequestration is actually a subset of the chelation, and is not considered as a completely
interchangeable term.
Applications:
There are a number of applications for chelating agents, however, we will provide discussion in
regards to its beneficial application in potable (drinking) water and agricultural and/or nursery uses:
Potable Water Treatment:
It is not always economically practical for drinking water suppliers to soften hard water sources prior
to making the water available to consumers. However, many of the problems associated with water
that included high amounts of minerals can be controlled or stabilized by the addition of chelating
agents. Where there may be high levels of iron and/or manganese, the addition of Sequest-All
EMC, Linear2, or Sequest-All can prevent the aesthetically unpleasant effects of "red water" (iron)
and "black water" (manganese). Please refer to our Dosage Calculator to find out the amount of
treatment may be necessary for controlling problems associated with these discolored water
problems. Other potable water treatment benefits includes scale prevention and removal of
existing scale deposit andcorrosion inhibition.
Agricultural Irrigation Application:
Chelating agents are found to be highly beneficial when included in the irrigation water in many
agricultural applications. These treatments can help both small plant nurseries as well as large grove
or farm water irrigation systems with the problems that arise from using hard water. First, these
treatments can prevent calcium scale from clogging drip lines, sprinkling heads, and microjets. When
the treatment is applied on a consistent basis, the treatments will maintain the irrigation system
assuring valuable water reaches all of your plants. Another benefit is the prevention of mineral
scale "white spotting" that can spoil the attractiveness of your plants. One of the function of an
effective chelating agent is to allow minerals in the irrigation water to "roll off" the leaves thereby
preventing calcium and/or iron from spotting the plants leaves.
Metalworking Application:
Chelating agents are used in all phases of metalworking from surface preparation and metal cleaning
to metal finishing and plating. . The goal in many metalworking treatments is to prepare a metal
surface for plating, coating, or brightening by removing surface greases and oils, by removing rust,
smut and other oxides and by protecting the cleaned surface from contamination prior to later
treatments. Sequest-All EMC is an excellent product to use for this purpose
During a metal plating operation, chelating agents can be used to control the rate of availability of the
plating metal ion and to chelate contamination metal ions in a plating bath. Chelating agents can be
used as a replacement for toxic cyanide in plating baths.

Oil Field Applications:
Scale formations can be a serious problem in oil gas production. In the well itself, plugging due to
scale formation in the underground rock formation holding the oil or gas can reduce production flow
as can the formation of mineral scale in the well casing. In this situation, specialized formulations of
chelating agents can be injected into the wells to reduce the tendency to plugging and scale
formation. During the recovery of oil and gas at the well head, there is a considerable reduction of
pressure in the system. Chelating agents can be added to the production flow to reduce this tendency
and prevent precipitation and formation plugging.

Finally, for optimum growth, plants need a number of different metal ion micronutrients. These are
often made available by including these metals in fertilizers. However, the addition of a metal salt to
fertilizer is sometimes ineffective. These metal ions can interact with soil components and be
precipitated far from the plant roots where the metal ions are absorbed. If chelating agents are added
with these metal ion micronutrients, the metal chelates are developed and can migrate through the
soil rather that reacting with it, and can give up the vital trace metals to the root system with a much
greater efficiency. Because of this improved efficiency, lower levels of metal ion micronutrients can be
used in their chelate form in fertilizers.
(SPER chem. Corp.,2010)
Metal chelation
Lipoic acid (LA), also known as -lipoic acid
[2]
and alpha lipoic acid (ALA)
[3]
is anorganosulfur
compound derived from octanoic acid. LA contains two sulfur atoms (at C6 and C8) connected by
a disulfide bond and is thus considered to be oxidized although either sulfur atom can exist in higher
oxidation states. The carbon atom at C6 is chiral and the molecule exists as two enantiomers (R)-(+)-
lipoic acid (RLA) and (S)-(-)-lipoic acid (SLA) and as a racemic mixture (R/S)-lipoic acid (R/S-LA).
Only the (R)-(+)-enantiomer exists in nature and is an essential cofactor of four mitochondrial enzyme
complexes.
[4]
Endogenously synthesized RLA is essential for aerobic metabolism. Both RLA and R/S-
LA are available as over-the-counter nutritional supplements and have been used nutritionally and
clinically since the 1950s for various diseases and conditions. LA appears physically as a yellow solid
and structurally contains a terminal carboxylic acid and a terminal dithiolane ring.
The relationship between endogenously synthesized (enzymebound) RLA and administered free
RLA or R/S-LA has not been fully characterized but free plasma and cellular levels increase and
decrease rapidly after oral consumption or intravenous injections. "Lipoate" is the conjugate base of
lipoic acid, and the most prevalent form of LA under physiologic conditions. Although the intracellular
environment is strongly reducing, both free LA and its reduced form, dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA), have
been detected in cells after administration of LA. Most endogenously produced RLA is not free
because octanoic acid, the precursor to RLA, is bound to the enzyme complexes prior to enzymatic
insertion of the sulfur atoms. As a cofactor, RLA is covalently attached by an amide bond to a
terminal lysine residue of the enzymes lipoyl domains. One of the most studied roles of RLA is as a
cofactor of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC or PDHC), though it is a cofactor in other
enzymatic systems as well (described below).

Owing to the presence of two thiol groups, dihydrolipoic acid is a chelating agent. It chelates both
intracellular and extracellular mercury in the brain and in the body.
[citation needed]
Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA)
has a half life of 3 hours. Lipoic acid administration can significantly enhance biliary excretion of
inorganic mercury in rat experiments, although it is not known if this is caused by chelation by lipoic
acid or some other mechanism.
[98]
Lipoic acid has the potential to cross the bloodbrain barrier in
humans, unlike DMSA and DMPS; its effectiveness, however, is heavily dependent on the dosage
and frequency of application.
[99]