Why are lewis bases good ligands?

1 Answer
anor277
Dec 2, 2015

By definition a Lewis base is an electron pair donor.

Explanation:

Given that Lewis bases are electron pair donors, they can certainly bind to Lewis acidic centres (such as #H^+# and metal ions), which ACCEPT electron density. Metal-ligand ligation formally involves donation of an electron pair from the ligand to the metal. For a complex such as #[Fe(OH_2)_6]^(3+)#, what was the Lewis acid, and what was the Lewis base before the complex was formed?

Related questions
See all questions in Lewis Acids and Bases
Impact of this question
4049 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License