Coordination Compound Naming

[Ivy Nguyen 3I]

I was wondering if the ligands being in alphabetical order in naming coordination compounds meant that the actual ligand names would be in alphabetical order or if it meant that the prefix attached to the ligand name would be in alphabetical order? For example, aqua would come before bromido but if it were monoaqua and dibromido, which one would come first in naming?

[Hayley Vu]

Alphabetical order is based entirely on the name of the ligand itself. We disregard the greek prefix when alphabetizing, so monoaqua would go before dibromide. Hope this helps!

[AJackman]

It's specifically the actual names of the ligands, NOT the prefix. So in your example monoaqua would come first.

[Sophia Dominguez 3I]

The greek prefix would not be taken into account when putting the ligands in alphabetical order. In the example above, aqua would come before bromido because we are not taking the greek prefix, only the specific name of the ligand itself.

[Celine Khuu 2F]

The actual ligand names would be in alphabetical order. So in your example, it would be monoaqua dibromido.