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Transition Metals

Ligand strength and the entropy of ligand replacement

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit A2 2

Overview

Chelate effect and general principle governing ligand replacement.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Evaluation

What determines the strength of a ligand?

Key term

Why is ammonia a stronger ligand than water?

Evaluation

Place water, ammonia and the chloride ion in order of ligand strength.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What determines the strength of a ligand?

    Model answer

    How readily its lone pair is available for donation to the metal ion.

  2. 2

    Why is ammonia a stronger ligand than water?

    Model answer

    Nitrogen is less electronegative than oxygen, so it holds its lone pair less tightly and donates it more readily.

  3. 3

    Place water, ammonia and the chloride ion in order of ligand strength.

    Model answer

    Chloride is the weakest, then water, with ammonia the strongest of the three.

  4. 4

    What happens when a stronger ligand is added to a complex?

    Model answer

    It displaces the weaker ligand from the metal ion in a ligand replacement reaction.

  5. 5

    How is a ligand replacement usually recognised?

    Model answer

    By a colour change, since the new ligands split the d subshell by a different amount.

  6. 6

    Why does a bidentate ligand displace two monodentate ligands so readily?

    Model answer

    One bidentate molecule replaces two monodentate ones, so the number of free particles increases and the entropy of the system rises.

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