Large aqueous aluminum hydroxide molecules

Since the first isolation and crystallization of the ε-Al13 polyoxocation, hundreds of scientific studies have been conducted on aqueous aluminum hydroxide polycations. Today, interest in these aluminum clusters is resurging because of their use as kinetic models for understanding aqueous environmental reactions. The field is reinvigorated by the persistent effort by a handful of research groups that have isolated and separated the large polymers that have long been suspected to exist in hydrolyzed aluminum solutions. This paper discusses the classes of large aqueous aluminum hydroxide clusters, kinetics of ligand-exchange reactions in aluminum and heteroatom clusters, and uses and environmental significance of the aqueous aluminum hydroxide clusters.