Forming Coordination Compounds

[Natalie Swerdlow 3K]

I know it was talked about in lecture how coordination compounds are made easily by adding H2O for example, but what exactly happens to a transition metal cation in a solution when it forms its complexes? In other words, what happens specifically to create a coordination compound when an electron rich species replaces the H2O ligands too? Is it just that H2O is bonded to a transition metal, and when certain ligands are introduced, they replace the H2O bonds completely?

[claire smith]

Yes - what you wrote in the second half of the question is correct. Because the H2O is not fully bonding to the new transition metal (it just forms coordinate covalent attractions between the lone pairs on the Oxygen and the transition metal) it can be replaced when certain species are introduced in solution.