why do chelating ligands have higher formation constants for metal complexes
Stability constants of complexes In (1) the bidentate ligand ethylene diamine forms a chelate complex with the copper ion. Chelation results in the formation of a five-membered ring. In (2) the bidentate ligand is replaced by two monodentate methylamine ligands of approximately the same donor power, meaning that the enthalpy of formation of Cuâ€“N bonds is approximately the same in the two reactions. Under conditions of equal copper concentrations and when then concentration of methylamine is twice the concentration of ethylenediamine, the concentration of the complex (1) will be greater than the concentration of the complex (2). The effect increases with the number of chelate rings so the concentration of the EDTA complex, which has six chelate rings, is much higher than a corresponding complex with two monodentate nitrogen donor ligands and four monodentate carboxylate ligands. Thus, the phenomenon of the chelate effect is a firmly established empirical fact: under comparable conditions, the concentration of a chelate complex will be higher than the concentration of an analogous complex with monodentate ligands.
Caesium chloride The caesium chloride structure adopts a primitive cubic lattice with a two-atom basis, where both atoms have eightfold coordination. The chloride atoms lie upon the lattice points at the edges of the cube, while the caesium atoms lie in the holes in the center of the cubes. This structure is shared with CsBr and CsI and many binary metallic alloys. In contrast, the other alkaline halides have the sodium chloride (rocksalt) structure.[8] When both ions are similar in size (Cs+ ionic radius 174 pm for this coordination number, Cl− 181 pm) the CsCl structure is adopted, when they are different (Na+ ionic radius 102 pm, Cl− 181 pm) the sodium chloride structure is adopted. Upon heating to above 445 °C, the normal caesium chloride structure (α-CsCl) converts to the β-CsCl form with the rocksalt structure (space group Fm3m).[5] The rocksalt structure is also observed at ambient conditions in nanometer-thin CsCl films grown on mica, LiF, KBr and NaCl substrates.[9]