naming complexes vs. coordination compounds

[Soraya Sadeghi 1B]

so essentially when writing the name of a complex ion, the ligands should be written in alphabetical order (excluding the Greek prefixes); but when writing the name of a coordination compound, the anion ligands should be written before the neutral ligands even if, for example, the anion starts with letter "a" and the neutral ligand starts with letter "b"?

[Eduardo Torres 3G]

No, when naming a coordination compound, whatever is within the brackets is always named in alphabetical order and anything before or after is named before and after the compounds. For example, [Cr(en)2(H20)Cl]Cl2 is aquachlorbisethylenediaminechromium(III) chloride. The ligands are named in alphabetical order regardless of their charge (aqua is placed before chloro). Similarly, Na[Cu(NH3)Cl5]2- is sodium amminepentachlorocopper(II) ion (neutral ammine is placed before anion chloro because of alphabetical order). Hopefully this clarifies things.

[Soraya Sadeghi 1B]

oh ok thank you so much! but what about when writing the chemical formula of a coordination compound; does the order of writing ligands matter?

[Eduardo Torres 3G]

From the examples in the workbook it seems like the order does not seem to matter as long as you write the ligands after the metal atom. There are examples where the anion ligand is before the neutral ligands and vice versa.