Sapling Week 9 #4

[Scot Widjaja Dis 1J]

What is the exact difference between a lewis base and a ligand because don't both those terms mean the same thing in the sense that they both donate electron pairs to another molecule?

[Kayko Lee 1C]

I think that they pretty much mean the same thing as they both have the same roles, so I believe that we were just introduced to the term ligand when we specifically dove into the topic of coordination complexes and ligands would be a more appropriate term than lewis bases somehow

[Tae Pasawat 2A]

I think a ligand is a subset of a lewis base. Lewis base is a general term for species that can donate electrons, but ligands specifically donate electrons to form a large complex (e.g. to a metal ion to form a coordination compound)

[StephanieIb]

A coordination complex is the product of a Lewis acid-base reaction in which ligands bond to a central metal atom/ion by coordinate covalent bonds. Ligands are Lewis bases. They contain at least one pair of electrons to donate to a metal atom/ion. A ligand is a type of Lewis base, but a ligand is an ion or molecule bound to the central atom to form a coordination complex (not interchangeable).

[Reese_Gover2K]

I think ligands are like a subset of a Lewis base as they act a similar way but ligands are more specific than Lewis bases. I've been thinking about it like: All ligands are Lewis bases but not all Lewis bases are ligands.

[abby hyman]

I believe it is the case that a ligand is a lewis base but all lewis bases are not ligands. A ligand is specifically the lewis base as part of a coordination compound.