How do metal ions form salts and complexes?

1 Answer
anor277
Mar 6, 2017

By drafting in the appropriate ligands...........

Explanation:

The binary halides of most transition metals have some solubility in aqueous solution. We would represent their dissolution in water by the following reaction:

#MCl_2(s) + "excess water"rarrM^(2+)(aq) + 2Cl^(-)(aq)#

The cation in solution is a coordination complex of a metal ion, which we could represent as #[M(OH_2)_6]^(2+)#. Given the appropriate counterion, we could crystallize this species from solution, and, typically, we get an octahedral metal hydrate.

The water molecule is labile, and could be replaced by other ligands.

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