dissolving heavy atoms

[Virginia Dress]

Does anyone know of a reference or just general rules of thumb for getting
various heavy atom compounds to dissolve?  All the crystallography
reference 
books I've looked at only talk about the reactions with aa side chains.
Needless to say I spent a whole day trying to get some of these compounds
dissolved with varying degrees of success.  I was trying to make stock
solutions in DDW, but added some acetonitrile when water didn't seem to be
working.  I still had problems.  The CRC handbook and the Merck index were
not of much help.  I can give more details if anyone is interested, but am
now seeking the general body of knowledge on these compounds, not just one
specific compound.

Thanks,

Ginnie
Dress at biosci.arizona.edu
Biochemistry