Brackets and Coordination Number

[Aliza Hacking 1A]

Hi! straight forward question but when determining the coordination number of a compound, do you always ignore the atom(s) outside the brackets when counting ligands, or are there cases when the atoms outside the bracket affect the coordination number? thank you!

[LouiseLin2L]

I think only atoms inside the brackets would count towards the coordination number since they are the ligands that are directly bonded to the central atom.

[Holly Do 2J]

Yes you would ignore anything outside the brackets and just focus on everything inside since those are the ligands directly attached to the central atom.

[Anish_Marripati_2F]

You wouldn't pay attention to the numbers outside the brackets. This is because inside the bracket the ligands are directly attached to the central atom, and from there you're allowed to determine the coordination number.

[Alex FreeWolf 2E]

Only the compounds/atoms within the brackets are accounted for in the coordination # as they are directly bonded to central atom

[Jessica Cornelia Hongarta 1G]

Hi! Yes, so the coordination number here refers to the number of ligands that are attached to the central metal atom. So, you should only focus on what is inside the bracket.

[205686400]

Hi! If you were looking at the coordination number itself, then it is safe to say that you may disregard anything outside of the brackets. The only time you should consider anything outside of the brackets is when determining oxidation states.

[Sanskriti Balaji 1J]

Hi! To figure out the coordination number, you only need to worry about the atoms inside the brackets! You can disregard the atoms outside of the brackets!

[Kiana Rogers 1E]

I believe when determining the coordination number, you ignore everything outside the brackets.

[madeleinewright]

Yes, when determining coordination number you only look at the atoms inside the brackets.

[michaelcrisera]

Yes, when determining the coordination number of a compound, only the elements inside the brackets are considered. The number of nonmetal elements inside of the brackets corresponds to the number of ligands that are bound to the central metal atom.

[Santiago Chang 2K]

Only atoms inside the brackets count for the coordination number, so you can ignore the rest. Hope this helps!

[205705413]

The ligands inside of the bracket only contribute to the coordination number.

[Lauren Wasef 3C]

Yes when trying to find the coordination number ignore all the atoms outside the brackets.
Ex: K3 [CoF6] has a coordination number of 6 because we ignored the K3 outside the brackets.