The difference in dentates of ligands

[905749989]

Hello all, I am still confused on how to classify a ligand based on the dentate the ligand is. For some reason I can't wrap my head around the concept so can someone please explain it to me?

[Hannah Jin 1J]

The dentates refer to the number of sites on that ligand that can donate electron pairs. You would look for the number of atoms that have electron lone pairs and the number corresponds to the prefix on the dentate (focus on the number of atoms not the number of electron lone pairs per atom).

[Michael Vigman 2D]

The dentate-ness of a ligand depends on how many atoms of the ligand is bound to the central atom. Monodentate has only one atom of the ligand bound to the central atom whereas bidentate has two and polydentate is many.

[Jonathan Shyu 3L]

One thing to note is the "dentateness" does not contribute to the coordination number. Despite having more bonds, the coordination number is only determined by how many ligands are bonded, not how many bonds are between the ligand and the central metal atom.