How is ruthenium made

Ruthenium has upper edge if it gets complexes with synthetic antibiotics. Ruthenium being a metal has better tendency to bind to the cellular component similar to Iron. When an organic moiety gets bind to a metal ion, at that time sharing or delocalization of cations between the two moieties occurs. The change in charges among the component of drug increases the permeability of cellular component in favor of drug. For example, Thiosemicarbazone shows a remarkable increase in its activity due to formation of complex of Ru [ 24 ].

Inhibitory effect on nitric oxides: nitric oxide is a cellular component which is produced by many cells. The main physiological role of nitric oxide is to produce vasodilation. Over production of nitric acid can cause many disorders associated with respiratory system such as tumor of respiratory system.

It also causes severe hypotension on over production. It also causes gastric inflammatory disorders. Ruthenium has beneficial effect in treatment of over production of nitric oxides.

When ruthenium is administered in complex form such as ruthenium poly amino carboxylates, excess nitric oxide present in blood binds to this complex readily and reduces ruthenium to form an unabsorbable complex there by inhibiting its unwanted effects [ 25 ].

Anti-carcinogenic activity: cancer or carcinoma is a stage where body cells undergo uncontrolled proliferation and having invasiveness and metastatic property. To treat carcinoma, drug therapy aims at inhibiting synthesis of cancerous protein as well as inhibiting DNA replication. In market there are drugs such as Cisplatin which uses platinum as anticancer agent.

Though platinum has shown better results in treatment of cancer but in some cancers, platinum is unable to show positive results. This shortcoming of Platinum made way for use of Ruthenium as a new entrant in treatment of cancer.

Ruthenium shows the ability to bind to the DNA and inhibits its replication as well as protein synthesis. Ruthenium has low aqueous solubility which was the only drawback of it.

This drawback was countered by using dialkyl sulfoxide derivative of ruthenium. The mechanism of action of ruthenium as an anticancer agent is that it causes apoptosis of tumor cells by acting at DNA level. Apoptosis is a controlled destruction of cells [ 17 , 18 ]. Radiation therapy: in cancer treatment radiotherapy has also been used. Radiation therapy becomes beneficial only when it is proximal to the cancerous cell. The agents used in radiation therapy are called radio sensitizers. Photodynamic therapy: it is a therapy where chemicals and electromagnetic radiations are used.

In this therapy chemicals are targeted on the cancerous cell, these chemicals become cytotoxic when they interact with electromagnetic radiation. In this therapy Ruthenium find its application as it increases the access of these chemicals to the cancerous cells [ 20 , 21 ].

Action on cancerous mitochondria: mitochondria are the power house of any cell. This makes it a potential target for anticancer therapy. Ruthenium red is a type of ruthenium which is used to stain mitochondria. Mitochondrial surface has some calcium entity on it.

When ruthenium red is added, it reacts with this calcium and stains the mitochondria. Ruthenium red also has tumor inhibiting activity. However, ruthenium red is not preferably used clinically as it has major side effects [ 20 , 22 ]. Effect on metastasis: metastasis is the ability of cancerous cell to spread in the body by lymphatic or circulatory system.

A tumor cell more than 1 mm in size requires additional blood supply to spread in the body. Formations of new blood vessels are called angiogenesis. Drugs which act as anti-metastasis many inhibit this action. Ruthenium complexes anti-metastatsis drug namely NAMI-A does the same action by binding to the mRNA and production of denatured protein which gets accumulated on the surface of tumor making a hard film and prevents any blood supply to the tumor cell.

This action inhibits the metastasis. Ruthenium has additional benefit that it easily crosses any cell so the reach of the drug increases [ 23 , 26 ].

Ruthenium with atomic number of 44 and symbol Ru was discovered by Russian chemist Karl Klaus — It is silvery whitish, lustrous hard metal with a shiny surface. The ability of Ru to exist in many oxidation states is an important property of this rare element which plays an important part in its applications. Ruthenium readily forms coordinate complexes and these complexes have their applications in diverse fields such as medicine, catalysis, biology, nanoscience, redox and photoactive materials.

In biomedical fields Ru is used for diagnosis and treatment purpose. For example, Ru is used for determination of calcitonin level in blood which is helpful in diagnosis and treatment of diseases related to thyroid and parathyroid glands. Ruthenium cyclosporin complex gives a stable compound which results in an inhibitory effect on T lymphocyte proliferation which shows its immune-suppressant action.

This property helps in the treatment of cancer. This chapter gives a brief account of the various properties of Ru which are exploited for applications in the medical field.

It is likely that in the coming years, further research will lead to even more useful applications of this miraculous element. Licensee IntechOpen.

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Discovery of ruthenium Ruthenium is one of the chemical elements given in the periodic table. Atomic number Element Electron configuration Number of electrons per shell 26 Iron Fe 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3s 2 3p 6 4s 2 3d 6 2,8,14,2 44 Ruthenium Ru 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3s 2 3p 6 4s 2 3d 10 4p 6 5s 1 4d 7 2,8,18,15,1 76 Osmium Os 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3s 2 3p 6 4s 2 3d 10 4p 6 5s 2 4d 10 5p 6 6s 2 4f 14 5d 6 2,8,18,32,14,2 Hassium Hs 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3s 2 3p 6 4s 2 3d 10 4p 6 5s 2 4d 10 5p 6 6s 2 4f 14 5d 10 6p 6 7s 2 5f 14 6d 6 2,8,18,32,32,14,2.

Table 1. Electron configuration of group 8 chemical elements. Main isotopes of Ruthenium S. Isotopes Abundance Half-life 1 96 Ru 5.

Table 2. Physical properties of platinum group elements. Table 3. Characteristics of main isotopes of ruthenium. Oxidation reaction of ruthenium As noted above, Ruthenium undergoes oxidation reaction to form Ruthenium oxide [ 11 ]. Coordination complexes of ruthenium Coordination complex is the process where a center molecule makes bond with surrounding atoms or ions which are also known as ligands.

Catalytic activity of ruthenium Ruthenium acts as a catalyst in many reactions. Development of half-sandwich para-cymene ruthenium II naphthylazophenolato complexes Ruthenium II -arene complex has a structure of three-legged piano stool with a metal at the center in a quasi-octahedral geometry which is occupied by byan arene complex. General applications Ruthenium finds application both in electronic industry and chemical industry. He called one of them ruthenium. From the portion of crude platinum that is insoluble in aqua regia, Klaus obtained 6 grams of ruthenium.

Ruthenium is a member of the platinum group. It is a hard, white transition metal. It does not tarnish at room temperatures but oxidizes explosively. It can be attacked by halogens and hydroxides. It has four crystal modifications. It can be plated by electrodeposition or thermal decomposition methods. Ruthenium tetroxide is highly toxic and may explode. There are few minerals, such as laurite, ruarsite and ruthenarsenite. All are rare and none acts as a commercial source of the metal.

Ruthenium is also associated with nickel and deposits from which it is recovered commercially. World production is 12 tonnes per year and reserves are hestimated to be ariund 5. Ruthenium compounds are encountered relatively rarely by most people. All ruthenium compounds should be regarded as highly toxic and as carcinogenic. Compounds of ruthenium stain the skin very strongly. It seems that ingested ruthenium is retained strongly in bones. Ruthenium oxide, RuO 4 , is highly toxic and volatile, and to be avoided.

Rhutenium is one of the radionuclides involved in atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, which began in , with a US test, and ended in with a Chinese test.

It is among the long-lived radionuclides that have produced and will continue to produce increased cancers risk for decades and centuries to come. Very few data are available on ruthenium impact on plants and estimates of its uptake have deducted levels of 5 ppb or less, although algae appear to concentrate it. No negative environmental effects have been reported.