Bonding octahedral complexes

Whether a complex is high- or low-spin depends upon the energy separation of the t2g and eg levels. Nationally, in a fj-bonded octahedral complex, the 12 electrons supplied by the ligands are considered to occupy the aig, and eg orbitals. Occupancy of the and eg levels corresponds to the number of valence electrons of the metal ion, just as in crystal field theory. The molecular orbital model of bonding in octahedral complexes gives much the same results as crystal field theory. It is when we move to complexes with M—L TT-bonding that distinctions between the models emerge. 

Whether a complex is high- or low-spin depends upon the energy separation of the t2g and eg levels. Nationally, in a (T-bonded octahedral complex, the 12 electrons supplied by the ligands are considered to occupy the a g, /] and eg... 

An approach that has hitherto not been successful is the use of enantiomerically pure chiral-at-metal bischelating self-complimcntary hydrogen bonding octahedral complexes as building blocks to form the srs net. In theory, complexes such as A-[Co(ilI)(2,2 -biimidazolato)3] should easily form the srs net because of the perfect match between the torsions angles of the... 

Cobalt compounds have been in use for centuries, notably as pigments ( cobalt blue ) in glass and porcelain (a double silicate of cobalt and potassium) the metal itself has been produced on an industrial scale only during the twentieth century. Cobalt is relatively uncommon but widely distributed it occurs biologically in vitamin B12 (a complex of cobalt(III) in which the cobalt is bonded octahedrally to nitrogen atoms and the carbon atom of a CN group). In its ores, it is usually in combination with sulphur or arsenic, and other metals, notably copper and silver, are often present. Extraction is carried out by a process essentially similar to that used for iron, but is complicate because of the need to remove arsenic and other metals. 

The chemistry of Cr(III) in aqueous solution is coordination chemistry (see Coordination compounds). It is dominated by the formation of kineticaHy inert, octahedral complexes. The bonding can be described by Ss]] hybridization, and HteraHy thousands of complexes have been prepared. The kinetic inertness results from the electronic configuration of the Cr ion (41). This type of orbital charge distribution makes ligand displacement and... 

Similarity with cobalt is also apparent in the affinity of Rh and iH for ammonia and amines. The kinetic inertness of the ammines of Rh has led to the use of several of them in studies of the trans effect (p. 1163) in octahedral complexes, while the ammines of Ir are so stable as to withstand boiling in aqueous alkali. Stable complexes such as [M(C204)3], [M(acac)3] and [M(CN)5] are formed by all three metals. Force constants obtained from the infrared spectra of the hexacyano complexes indicate that the M--C bond strength increases in the order Co < Rh < [r. Like cobalt, rhodium too forms bridged superoxides such as the blue, paramagnetic, fCl(py)4Rh-02-Rh(py)4Cll produced by aerial oxidation of aqueous ethanolic solutions of RhCL and pyridine.In fact it seems likely that many of the species produced by oxidation of aqueous solutions of Rh and presumed to contain the metal in higher oxidation states, are actually superoxides of Rh . ... 

When, however, the ligand molecule or ion has two atoms, each of which has a lone pair of electrons, then the molecule has two donor atoms and it may be possible to form two coordinate bonds with the same metal ion such a ligand is said to be bidentate and may be exemplified by consideration of the tris(ethylenediamine)cobalt(III) complex, [Co(en)3]3+. In this six-coordinate octahedral complex of cobalt(III), each of the bidentate ethylenediamine molecules is bound to the metal ion through the lone pair electrons of the two nitrogen atoms. This results in the formation of three five-membered rings, each including the metal ion the process of ring formation is called chelation. 

For elements adjacent to the noble gases the principal orbitals used in bond formation are those formed by hybridisation of the s and p orbitals. For the transition elements there are nine stable orbitals to be taken into consideration, which in general are hybrids of five d orbitals, one s orbital, and three p orbitals. An especially important set of six bond orbitals, directed toward the comers of a regular octahedron, are the d2sps orbitals, which are involved in most of the Werner octahedral complexes formed by the transition elements. 

When tt o d eigenfunctions are available, as in trivalent cobalt, quadrivalent palladium and platinum, etc., six equivalent bond eigenfunctions of strength 2.923 and directed toward the comers of a regular octahedron can be formed. These form the bonds in a great many octahedral complexes. 

In practice, these conditions of radial waveforms and bond lengths will not be met exactly, so that a rough rule is that Ad 0.5 Act in real systems. Once again, only one electronic, d-d absorption is expected (and observed), although much shifted towards the red relative to that in an analogous octahedral complex. 

As already pointed out, the presence of a macrocyclic ligand, which occupies the four equatorial coordination sites of an octahedral complex, will tend to limit insertion and elimination reactions of the Co—C bond to those which require only that single coordination site. The presence of unidentate ligands in the pentacyanides, on the other hand, will offer greater opportunities for reactions which require a second, adjacent site. 

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