NAMING COMPLEX METAL IONS

This page explains how to name some common complex metal ions.

How to work out the names of complex ions

Although the names of complex ions can look long and worrying, the formulae are simply being coded in much the same way that organic names are coded. Once you have sorted out that code, the names are entirely descriptive.

Naming the ligands

Coding for the ligand

The table shows some common ligands and the code for them in the name of a complex ion. The old names sometimes differ by a letter or so, but never enough for it to be confusing.

Take care with the code for ammonia as a ligand - it has 2 "m"s in its name. If you miss one of these out so that you are left with "amine" or "amino", you are refering to the NH₂ group in an organic compound.

This is probably the only point of confusion with these names.

This change hasn't been commonly made (at least at the 16 - 18 year old level I am aiming at), and you will still find the names in the table above in textbooks and on the web. The changes are also inconsistent with the way similar groups are named in organic chemistry. For example, we talk about chloroethane, not chloridoethane, and IUPAC still recommends the "chloro" (etc) usage in organic chemistry.

Coding for the number of ligands

The normal prefixes apply if there is more than one ligand.

Putting this together

For a complex ion containing only one type of ligand, there is no problem. For example:

[Cu(H₂O)₆]²⁺ is called the hexaaquacopper(II) ion.

(Don't worry about the copper(II) bit for the moment.) The fact that there are two "a"s next to each other in the name is OK.

With more than one type of ligand in an ion, the ligands are named in alphabetical order - ignoring the prefixes. For example:

[Cu(NH₃)₄(H₂O)₂]²⁺ is called the tetraamminediaquacopper(II) ion.

The "ammine" is named before the "aqua" because "am" comes before "aq" in the alphabet. The "tetra" and "di" are ignored.

Naming the metal

You might have thought that this was fairly obvious, but it isn't necessarily. It depends on whether the complex ion ends up as positively or negatively charged.

For positively charged complex ions

A positively charged complex ion is called a cationic complex. A cation is a positively charged ion.

The metal in this is named exactly as you would expect, with the addition of its oxidation state.

Copper's oxidation state is +2 because the original uncomplexed ion was Cu²⁺ - NOT because the complex carries 2+ charges.

The oxidation state is frequently left out if a metal only ever has one oxidation state. For example, in its compounds aluminium always has an oxidation state of +3. [Al(H₂O)₆]³⁺ is usually just called the hexaaquaaluminium ion rather than the hexaaquaaluminium(III) ion.

For negatively charged complex ions

A negatively charged complex ion is called an anionic complex. An anion is a negatively charged ion.

In this case the name of the metal is modified to show that it has ended up in a negative ion. This is shown by the ending -ate.

With many metals, the basic name of the metal is changed as well - sometimes drastically!

Common examples include:

So, for example, suppose you bond 4 chloride ions around a Cu²⁺ ion to give [CuCl₄]^2-.

The name shows the 4 (tetra) chlorines (chloro) around a copper in an overall negative ion (cuprate). The copper has on oxidation state of +2. This is the tetrachlorocuprate(II) ion.

Similarly, [Al(H₂O)₂(OH)₄]^- is called the diaquatetrahydroxoaluminate ion. Take the name to pieces so that you can see exactly what refers to what. Don't forget that the two different ligands are named in alphabetical order - aqua before hydroxo - ignoring the prefixes, di and tetra.

The oxidation state of the aluminium could be shown, but isn't absolutely necessary because aluminium only has the one oxidation state in its compounds. The full name is the diaquatetrahydroxoaluminate(III) ion.