Cobalt, tetraammine isomers

The green and violet tetraammines have the same chemical composition, that is, they are isomers and are the only two isomers with this composition. Werner realized that this was possible only if the six ligands were deployed about the cobalt(III) center in an octahedral arrangement (cf. octahedral coordination in solids, Sections 4.3 and 4.4) for example, a flat hexagonal complex Co(NH3)4Cl2+ would have three isomers, like ortho-, meta-, and para-disubstituted benzenes. Werner correctly identified the green compound as the trans isomer (chloro ligands on opposite sides of the octahedron) and the violet as cis (same side), as in Fig. 13.1. 

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