In chemistry, metal hydroxides are a family of compounds of the form where M is a metal. They consist of hydroxide () and metallic ,
Examples
Alkali metal hydroxides
Other metal hydroxides
-
Gallium(III) hydroxide
-
Lead(II) hydroxide
-
Thallium(I) hydroxide
-
Thallium(III) hydroxide
Molecular metal hydroxides
Many metal hydroxides are in fact complexes, i.e. molecules or ions. The transition metal hydroxide complexes are a well developed area in coordination chemistry.
Role in soils
In
, it is assumed that larger amounts of
are released from decomposing
plant litter rather than from throughfall in any natural plant community. Decomposition of dead plant material causes complex organic compounds to be slowly oxidized (
lignin-like
humus) or to break down into simpler forms (sugars and amino sugars, aliphatic and phenolic organic acids), which are further transformed into microbial biomass (microbial humus) or are reorganized, and further oxidized, into humic assemblages (
fulvic acid and
humic acid acids), which bind to
and metal hydroxides.
