Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Potential uses for transition metal citrates?

White Yeti - 22-9-2011 at 14:30

A while ago, I made carbonates of various transition metals so that I could easily prepare transition metal salts by mixing with the corresponding acids. I was bored one day and decided to mix the carbonates with some citric acid to get transition metal citrates. But I have no idea what these citrates can be used for. Wikipedia says that iron citrate is used as an iron supplement, but other than that, citrates look pretty much useless. If you're wondering what metals I used, I used copper, iron and zinc. I'm poor, so I didn't use anything else. I'm a safety freak, so I didn't use cobalt and I'm extremely allergic to nickel, so those are really the only transition metals I can work with. I don't want to make other citrates unless I know that there is a significant use for them.

So, are there any other, significant, applications for metal citrates? Perhaps as chemical intermediaries?

Chemistry Alchemist - 22-9-2011 at 17:44

i made a tiny amount of Calcium Citrate from lemon juice, but im going to convert that back too Citric Acid