
In other words, all ligands function as Lewis bases. These are used to form co-ordinate bonds with the metal ion.Īll ligands are lone pair donors. What all these have got in common is active lone pairs of electrons in the outer energy level. Simple ligands include water, ammonia and chloride ions. The molecules or ions surrounding the central metal ion are called ligands. If you follow this link, use the BACK button on your browser to return quickly to this page. Amongst other examples of co-ordinate bonding, that page contains a description of the bonding in the complex ion formed between aluminium ions and water molecules, and that will be repeated below on this page - so you needn't spend a lot of time reading that bit. Note: If you aren't sure about co-ordinate (dative covalent) bonding, you aren't going to make much sense of what follows without first following this link. (In some cases, the bonding is actually more complicated than that.) These can be considered to be attached to the central ion by co-ordinate (dative covalent) bonds. It discusses various sorts of ligand (including some quite complicated ones), and describes what is meant by co-ordination number.Ĭomplex metal ions containing simple ligandsĪ complex ion has a metal ion at its centre with a number of other molecules or ions surrounding it. This page explains the terms complex ion and ligand, and looks at the bonding between the ligands and the central metal ion.

Introducing complex ions - ligands and bonding
