Coordination Compounds

Let’s understand about coordination compounds through a daily life example.

Ø Consider a house with 5 rooms with each room having a capacity to accommodate two persons as paying guests. The landlord can thus accommodate 10 persons, in total, as paying guests.

Ø Now, suppose there are 5 people living in the house as paying guests and they are paying the landlord enough rent for him to be satisfied and each person is occupying one room each. However, the fact is that there can be more people accommodated as paying guests, given the actual capacity of the room and if there is someone who is in great need of a place to live.

Ø Hence, despite earning sufficient money from the 5 paying guests, the landlord can take in more people as paying guests if someone is in great need of a room as there is vacancy in the house.

Ø Similarly, the d-orbital of metal atoms or ions can be seen analogous to a house and the electrons already residing in the orbital can be regarded as the paying guests already living in the house.

Ø However, since there is still some vacancy for electrons, the metal ion or atom could form coordination bonds with molecules that can act as electron donors (ligands), until the entire capacity is fulfilled.