TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - POLYMERS - Preferred Component: The polymer multidentate ligand includes monomers consisting of acrylic and methacrylic esters, vinyl aromatic monomers, nitriles, amides or aliphatic vinyl esters. It is a homopolymer in which a functionality has been introduced as a pendant group in repeat units of the polymer or a copolymer in which the fraction of pendant groups bearing the functionality ranges from 0.10-0.99. Particularly, the ligand is a block copolymer in which at least one block contains pendant groups bearing the functionality and the second block does not or graft copolymer in which at least one of the graft chains or polymer backbone contains pendant groups bearing the functionality and the remaining portion of the polymer does not bear functionality. Preferred Material: The polymer multidentate ligand is an amine-containing polymer multidentate ligand, especially a homopolymer having a pendent group that contains a primary, secondary or tertiary amine or a copolymer that contains 10-95 mol.% of pendant groups with primary, secondary, and/or tertiary amine groups. More particularly, it is a homopolymer or copolymer having a pendant group that contains aromatic amine groups comprising pyridine, imidazole, pyrrole, pyrazine, or pyrazole units or a copolymer containing metal binding ligands selected from oxime or acetoacetate as pendant groups. It is polydimethylaminoethylmethacrylate (PDMAEMA), a copolymer of dimethylaminoethylmethacrylate (DMAEMA) containing 10-99.99% DMAEMA groups or copolymer containing ureidomethacrylate groups present at 5-40 (preferably 10-20) mol.%.Preferred Monomers: The acrylic esters are selected from ethyl acrylate, 2-ethylhexyl acrylate or butyl acrylate. The methacrylic esters are methyl methacrylate, butyl methacrylate or 2-ethylhexyl methacrylate. The vinyl aromatic monomers are selected from styrene, alpha-methylstyrene, vinyltoluene, vinylpyridine or para-acetoxystyrene. The nitriles are especially acrylonitriles. The amides are selected from vinylpyrrolidone, acrylamide, N-alkylacrylamides and methacrylamides or N,N-dialkyl acrylamides. The aliphatic vinyl esters are selected from vinyl formate, vinyl acetate, vinyl propionate, vinyl butyrate, vinyl 3,6,9-trioxaundecanoate, the vinyl esters of versatic acid Veova 10 or vinyl esters of neo-acids. The non-functional block may be selected from a wide variety of candidates including polystyrene, polybutadiene, polyisoprene, polydimethylsiloxane, polyacrylates (including polyfluoroacrylates), polymethacrylates (including polyfluoromethacrylates), polyethylene glycol, polyacrylic acid or polymethacrylic acid. The portion of the polymer which does not bear functionality is polystyrene, polybutadiene, polyisoprene, polydimethylsiloxane, polyacrylates (including polyfluoroacrylates), polymethacrylate (including polyfluoromethacrylates), polyethylene glycol, methoxy- or alkoxy-terminated polyethylene glycol, polyacrylic acid or polymethacrylic acid.Preferred Method: The polymer is synthesized by free radical polymerization. The polymer multidentate ligand is synthesized by living/controlled radical polymerization; anionic or by cationic polymerization or group transfer polymerization. EXAMPLE - To a reaction flask, methyl 2-bromopropionate (173 mg), dimethylaminoethylmethacrylate (4.5 g) and water/isopropanol (1:1 by volume) were added. The water/isopropanol solution was degassed through one freeze-thaw cycle and copper catalyst complex (cuprous chloride/bipyridine, 1:2) was added to start polymerization. After 4 hours at 22 degreesC, the solution was cooled to room temperature, diluted by adding tetrahydrofuran and passed through a silica column to remove the blue copper catalyst. A white gum-like product was obtained after removing solvent and drying overnight at 50 degreesC in a vacuum oven. The polymer i.e. PDMAEMA was shown to have a number-averaged degree of polymerization of 30 and a polydispersity index of 1.3.