What is an ionization isomer?

Question

7854 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2015-11-19T00:57:58

We see these in transition metal complexes. Take the following compound for example:

$["CoBr"("NH"_3)_5]"SO"_4$

This is called pentaamminebromocobalt sulfate.

$["CoSO"_4("NH"_3)_5]"Br"$

This is called pentaamminesulfatocobalt bromide.

In either case, the cobalt is $"Co(III)"$ , and none of the ammonia molecules contribute to the charge. The charges also all cancel out nicely.

(Sulfate is a resonance hybrid structure in real life, and each oxygen shares a $"-1/2"$ charge with the cobalt.)