Polydentates

[Roma Vashi 3L]

Hi,
I am confused on how to determine which ligands can be a polydentate. I know it has something to do with how many places a ligand can bind to a metal but am unsure on how to determine this number. Thank you

[Vyas_Koduvayur_2B]

You can typically find them by counting the number of N atoms with a lone pair, or a negatively charged oxygen atom (which would have 3 lone pairs) when its bound to something. The common polydentate ligands we need to know for this class are EDTA (hexadentate), oxalate (bidentate), ethyldiammine (en, bidentate), and diethylenetriammine (dien, tridentate).