Chelate

[Husnia Safi - 1K]

What is a chelate? what does it have to do with ligands?

[Jazmin 1H]

I am confused about this too. In my notes, I wrote that chelate is a complex containing a ligand that forms a ring of atoms with a central metal atom, but I do not really understand what that means.

[Bryan Jiang 1F]

A chelate is a structure resembling a ring that results when a special ligand associates with a central atom, usually a cation. So, it is a complex made of two parts:
1. An atom, usually a cation, that will become the central atom once it is bound by the second part of the complex, the chelating ligand.
2. The chelating ligand that binds to an atom, usually a cation, that results in an overall ring-shaped structure. This overall ring-shaped structure that results from combining an atom with a chelating ligand is referred to as a chelate.

This ligand that forms a ring of atoms that includes the central atom is referred to as a chelating ligand. A chelating ligand is special because of its ability to bind to cations tightly due to it being polydentate, or having multiple lone pairs that are involved in binding a cation. Chelating ligands are important in treating heavy-metal poisoning because of their ability to bind the metal cations tightly.