'The authors have begun to examine the extraction and recovery of heavy elements from aqueous waste streams using redox-active metal chalcogenides. They have been able to prepare extractants from known chalcogenide starting materials, studied the efficacy of the extractants for selective removal of soft metal ions from aqueous phases, studied the deactivation of extractants and the concomitant recovery of soft metal ions from the extractants, and characterized all of the solids and solutions thus far in the study. The study was proposed as two parallel tasks: Part 1 and Part 2 emphasize the study and development of known metal chalcogenide extractants and the synthesis and development of new metal chalcogenide extractants, respectively. The two tasks were divided into sub-sections that study the extractants and their chemistry as detailed below: Preparation and reactivity of metal chalcogenide host solids Extraction of target waste (guest) ions from simulated waste streams Examination of the guest-host solids recovery of the guest metal and reuse of extractant Each section of the two tasks was divided into focused subsections that detail the specific problems and solutions to those problems that were proposed. The extent to which those tasks have been accomplished and the continued efforts of the …