Wooldridgeite, ideally Na2(P2O7)2(H2O)10, orthorhombic, a = 11.938(1), b = 32.854(2), c = 11.017(1) Å , V = 4321.2(8) Å3, a:b:c = 0.3634:1:0.3353, space group Fdd2, Z = 8, is a new mineral from Judkins Quarry, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Associated minerals are calcite, chalcopyrite, bornite and baryte. It occurs as equant crystals forming rhombic dipyramids; no twinning was observed. It is transparent blue-green with a very pale-blue streak, a vitreous lustre, and does not fluoresce under long- or short-wave ultraviolet light. Wooldridgeite has a Mohs hardness of 2–3, is brittle with an irregular fracture, and has no cleavage. The calculated density is 2.279 g/cm3. In transmitted light, wooldridgeite is colourless, non-pleochroic, and shows no dispersion. It is biaxial negative with α = 1.508(1), β = 1.511(1), γ = 1.517(1), 2V(meas.) = 76.2(5), 2V(calc.) = 71(10)8, X = b, Y = c, Z = a. The strongest five reflections in the X-ray powder diffraction pattern are [d(Å), (I), (hkl)]: 8.23(30)(040), 6.52(100)(131), 4.05(40)(260), 3.255(40)(262); 2.924(40)(371). Electron-microprobe analysis of wooldridgeite gave P2O5 39.37, CuO 20.24, MgO 0.24, CaO 7.73, Na2O 8.33, K2O 0.17, H2O(calc.) 24.72, sum 100.80 wt.%; the corresponding unit formula (based on 24 anions) is (Na1.96K0.03)Ca1.00(Cu1.85Mg0.04)P4.04O14(H2O)10 where the H2O groups were assigned from knowledge of the crystal structure; the infrared absorption spectrum also indicates the presence of H2O in the structure. The mineral is named for James Wooldridge (1923–1995), a fervent amateur mineral collector who discovered this mineral.

Synthesis and structure of two phosphates belonging to the ternary Sb2O5-Fe2O3-P2O5 system are reported. Structures of both SbV1.50FeIII0.50(PO4)3 and (SbV0.50FeIIIe0.50)P2O7 phases, obtained by solid state reaction in air atmosphere at 950 °C and 900 °C, respectively, were determined at room temperature from X-ray powder diffraction using the Rietveld method. Sb1.50Fe0.50(PO4)3 phosphate belongs to the Nasicon-type structure with R32 space group. Hexagonal cell parameters are ahex.=8.305(1) Å and chex.=22.035(2) Å. Rietveld refinement results show a 2-2 ordered distribution, along the c-axis, of X(1) and X(2) sites (crystallographic formula [Sb0.88Fe0.12]X(1)[Fe0.38Sb0.62]X(2)(PO4)3) in the Nasicon framework. (Sb0.50Fe0.50)P2O7 is isotypic with β-SbP2O7 pyrophosphate [Pna21 space group; a=7.865(1) Å, b=15.699(2) Å, c=7.847(1) Å]. Its crystal structure is built up from corner-shared SbO6 or FeO6 octahedra and P2O7 groups (two group types). Each P2O7 group shares its six vertices with three SbO6 and three FeO6 octahedra, and each octahedra is connected to six P2O7 groups. A quasi 1-1 ordered distribution, along the b-axis, of Sb5+ and Fe3+ ions in the pyrophosphate framework are observed.

Synthesis and structure of two phosphates belonging to the ternary Sb2O5–In2O3–P2O5 system are realized. Structures of SbV1.50InIII0.50(PO4)3 and (SbV0.50InIII0.50)P2O7 phases, obtained by solid state reaction in air at 950 °C, were determined at room temperature from X-ray powder diffraction using the Rietveld method. SbV1.50InIII0.50(PO4)3 have a monoclinic (space group P21/n) distortion of the Sc2(WO4)3-type framework. Its structure is constituted by corner-shared SbO6 or InO6 octahedra and PO4 tetrahedra. Monoclinic unit cell parameters are a=11.801(2) Å, b=8.623(1) Å, c=8.372(1) Å, and β=90.93(1)°. (Sb0.50In0.50)P2O7 is isotypic with (Sb0.50Fe0.50)P2O7 and crystallizes in orthorhombic system (space group Pna21) with a=7.9389(1) Å, b=16.0664(2) Å, and c=7.9777(1) Å. Its structure is built up from corner-shared SbO6 or InO6 octahedra and P2O7 groups (two group-types). Each P2O7 group shares its six vertices with three SbO6 and three InO6 octahedra, and each octahedron is connected to six P2O7 groups.

Polyphosphates are used in drinking water to prevent the precipitation of cations such as calcium and iron. The possible negative impact of using polyphosphates is the undesirable complexation of lead that could result in elevated lead levels in consumers' tap water. Although the water industry has focused on complexation, lead polyphosphate solids such as lead pyrophosphate, Pb2P2O7, have been considered in other fields and not been shown to form in water. The ability to form lead pyrophosphate in water could have a potential impact on the strategies used to reduce lead levels in drinking water distribution systems. The objective of this work was to determine whether lead pyrophosphate could form under simulated potable drinking water conditions. Lead pyrophosphate was synthesized in water (pH 8.2, 10 mg C/L, 2.7 mg Cl2/L) after 13 days of aging. The formation of lead pyrophosphate was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and microscopy analysis. Synthesis did not require elevated temperatures or microwave assisted approaches used by past researchers. The findings suggest that lead (and possibly other metal) pyrophosphates could conceivably form in real drinking water systems, although much more work is necessary to determine the chemistry and kinetic boundaries.

Glycolysis, the process responsible for the conversion of monosaccharides to pyruvic acid, is a ubiquitous feature of cellular metabolism and was the first major biochemical pathway to be well characterized. Although the majority of glycolytic enzymes are common to all organisms, the past quarter of a century has revealed that glycolysis in higher plants possesses numerous distinctive features. Research in the nineteenth century established convincingly that plants carry out alcoholic fermentation under anaerobic conditions. In 1878, Wilhelm Pfeffer asserted that a non-oxygen-requiring ‘intramolecular respiration’ was involved in the aerobic respiration of plants. Between 1900 and 1950 it was demonstrated that plants metabolize sugar and starch by a glycolytic pathway broadly similar to that of yeasts and muscle tissue. In 1948, the first purification and characterization of a plant glycolytic enzyme, aldolase, was published by Paul Stumpf. By 1960 the presence of each of the 10 enzymes of glycolysis, presumed at the time to be located in the cytosol, had been confirmed in higher plants. Shortly after 1960 it was shown that the mechanism of glycolytic regulation in plants had features in common with that of animals and yeasts, especially as regards the important role played by the enzyme phosphofructokinase; but important regulatory properties peculiar to plants were soon demonstrated. In the last 30 years, higher-plant glycolysis has been found to exhibit a number of additional characteristics peculiar to plant systems. One conspicuous feature of plant glycolysis, discovered in the 1970s, is the presence of a complete or nearly complete sequence of glycolytic enzymes in plastids, distinct and spatially separated from the glycolytic enzymes located in the cytosol. Plastidic and cytosolic isoenzymes of glycolysis have been shown to differ in their kinetic and regulatory properties, suggesting that the two pathways are independently regulated. Since about 1980 it has become increasingly clear that the cytosolic glycolysis of plants may make use of several enzymes other than the conventional ones found in yeasts, muscle tissue and plant plastids: these enzymes include a pyrophosphate-dependent phosphofructokinase, a non-reversible and nonphosphorylating glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, a phosphoenolpyruvate phosphatase (vacuolar location) and a three-enzyme sequence able to produce pyruvate from phosphoenolpyruvate avoiding the pyruvate-kinase step. These non-conventional enzymes may catalyze glycolysis in the plant cytosol especially under conditions of metabolic stress. Experiments on transgenic plants possessing significantly elevated or reduced (reduced to virtually nil in some cases) levels of glycolytic enzymes are currently playing an important part in improving our understanding of the regulation of plant glycolysis; such experiments illustrate an impressive degree of flexibility in the pathway's operation. Plant cells are able to make use of enzymes bypassing or substituting for several of the conventional enzymic steps in the glycolytic pathway; the extent and conditions under which these bypasses operate are the subject of current research. The duplication of the glycolytic pathway in plants and the flexible nature of the pathway have possibly evolved in relation to the crucial biosynthetic role played by plant glycolysis beyond its function in energy generation; both functions must proceed if a plant is to survive under varying and often stressful environmental or nutritional conditions.