textbook question 9c5

[Nikhil Pillai 2K]

I am really struggling with this denticity stuff - why is C032- either a mono or bidentate ligand? H20 is monodentate? Oxalate is bidentate? Can someone please explain why this is so and how to approach these problems. I also have no idea how to approach part a.

[905994971]

Polydentate means the ligand can bind to the same metal in multiple spots. Two things must be true for this to be accurate.
1. The ligand must have 2 or more locations on it that can donate electrons
2. Those locations must be the optimal distance apart to allow for binding to the same metal --> too close will be impossible to bind to different binding sites and too far will be too far to bind to the same metal atom. The way I like to do this is to see if there are 4 sigma bonds between one atom and the next. Dr. Lavelle did a good example of this in lecture.

With this information, you can draw out the ligands provided and figure out if these two conditions are true.