Multiparameter Correlations between Properties of Metal Ions and Their Acute Toxicity in Mice

Abstract

This paper extends our earlier study of correlations of acute metal-ion toxicity (14-day LD50) in mice and physicochemical properties of the ions. Here we put metal ions into two main groups as defined by Kaiser. Using most of the metals in the periodic system, we find the least redundant linear combinations, Wi, of the ionic radius, sum of ionization potentials, atomic weight, Williams softness parameter, and electronegativity for each of Kaiser’s two groups. Information is provided so that Wi can be evaluated for any metal from these five quantities. For the two groups of metals we then tested for multiparameter correlations between the Wi having the highest sample variance and our mouse LD50. For our LD50 involving the five metal ions in Kaiser’s group (1) the correlation is poor, whereas a good correlation is found for the 14 ions in group (2).