Encyclopedia > Chelation

  Article Content

Chelation

Chelation descrbes the bonding of the organic ligand(s) to a metal atom, forming a metal complex. A compound that avidly engages in this kind of complex formation is often called a chelating agent (for example, EDTA).

The term chelate was first applied in 1920 by Sir Gilbert T. Morgan and H.D.K. Drew in J. Chem. Soc., 1920, 117, 1456, who stated: "The adjective chelate, derived from the great claw or chela (chely- Greek) of the lobster or other crustaceans, is suggested for the caliperlike groups which function as two associating units and fasten to the central atom so as to produce heterocyclic rings."

Metal complexes are of widespread interest and studied by inorganic chemists, physical and organic chemists, biochemists, pharmacologists, molecular biologists and environmentalists.

See also: electron counting - organometallic chemistry



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

... which the Canadian Parliament enacted in 1960 had many of these rights, but it was only applicable to the federal government and was not considered part of the ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 24 ms