Polydentate Ligands

[Reina Robles 2B]

So I know polydentate ligands have multiple sites where they can bond to the same transition metal, but how do you know that it can do that? Thanks.

[Anika Chakrabarti 1A]

In the textbook, it says that the ligands ethylenediamine (en) and oxalato are bidentate, diethylenetriamine (dien) is tridentate, and (edta) is hexadentate. I'm not sure if these will always be polydentate though, or if it is only in certain cases.

[EvanWang]

It's tough to say but generally the bonding sites should be on the same side of the molecule. For example, cisplatin works because both of the Chlorines are on the same side and can bind to DNA at two points. If the Chlorines were in an orientation where they were opposite each other, the resulting molecule wouldn't effectively bind to DNA.

[Reina Robles 2B]

Thank you both!