Transition Metal Complexes and Bonding

📋 Course Outline

1. Transition metals and complexes
2. Spectrochemical series and crystal field theory
3. Molecular orbital theory and SALCs
4. Octahedral sigma-donor complexes
5. Ligand field splitting and electron count
6. 18-electron rule and square planar complexes
7. Electron counting methods
8. Organometallic synthesis routes
9. CO bonding and IR shifts
10. Ligand hapticity and bridging modes

📖 1. Transition metals and complexes

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Transition metal complex : A transition metal complex is a bonding interaction between a Lewis acid metal centre and a Lewis base ligand.
• Lewis acid Lewis base view : In the Lewis acid–base view, the metal accepts electron density while the ligand donates it to form coordinate bonding.
• Oxidation state of metal : The formal oxidation state of the metal centre is a bookkeeping charge used to characterise electron density and counting.
• d n electron count : The d n count is the number of d electrons on the metal after applying the formal oxidation state.
• Coordination number and shape : Coordination number and shape describe the ligand arrangement around the metal centre that determines which orbitals interact.

📝 Essential Points