Hemoglobin and the Heme Group:

Metal Complexes in the Blood for Oxygen Transport

Authors: Rachel Casiday and Regina Frey
Department of Chemistry, Washington University
St. Louis, MO 63130

Experiment #5: Inorganic Reactions in Aqueous Solutions III: Complex Ion Preparation and Spectroscopy Lab

Printable Tutorial

• Introduction

• Oxygen Transport in the Blood

• Metal Complexes

• Hemoglobin Protein
  • Protein Subunits
  • Heme Group
  • Conformational Changes

• Spectroscopy and the Color of Blood

• Effect of CO₂ and H⁺ on O₂ Binding

• Summary
• Naming of Coordination Compounds and other additional links
• Practice Problems
• Assignment Sheet