Dentate Naming and Lewis Structures

[Sean Phen]

How do you tell the difference in the lewis structures for mono, bi, tri, and hexa dentate?

[shevanti_kumar_1E]

The prefix of dentate tells you the number of sites the ligand can bind to on the central atom in the coordination compound.

[Veronica Macias 3K]

I think you have to make sure you have the best lewis structure possible draw and then look for how many bonds the ligand makes with the central metal atom to tell you what prefix to use. For example, hexadentate would be six bonds.

[Grace_Remphrey_2J]

To see if a ligand is a bidentate, tridentate, or hexadentate, you look to see how many lone pairs there are on the different atoms. The best way to see this is by drawing a lewis structure. For example, a bidentate would have two lone pairs, each on different atoms. Hope this helps!