Background

Question 1

Lewis acidity/basicity

Answer 1

Lewis acid: electron pair acceptors.
Lewis base: electron pair donators.

Question 2

Relationship to acid/base behaviour

Answer 2

• metal accepts electrons: Lewis acid.
• ligand donates electrons: Lewis base.
• in general, good bases are also good ligands.
• transition metals can readily form such complexes as they have energetically available d-orbitals.

Question 3

Ligand field theory (LFT)

Answer 3

-Useful to account for electronic structures of TM complexes.
-The negative field of ligands which surrounds a TM is termed the ‘ligand field’.
-The ligand field exerts a repulsive force on the TM. -This perturbs the degenerate nature of the d-orbitals.

Question 4

What is the arrangement of d-orbitals in space

Answer 4

-Along axes: dx^2-y^2, dz^2.
-Between axes: dxy, dxz, dyz.

Question 5

Spectrochemical series

Answer 5

-The magnitude of LFSP is determined mainly by the ligand.
-A π-donor ligand (halogen, aqua, etc.) makes the absorption wavelength longer, and a π-acceptor ligand (carbonyl, olefin, etc.).