Coordination Compounds are backbone of modern inorganic and bio-inorganic and bio-chimestry and chemical industry.
In the previous Unit we learnt that transition metals form a large number of complex compounds in which the metal atoms and bound to a number of anions or neutral molecules, In modern technology such compounds are called coordination Compounds.
The chemistry of coordination Compounds is an important and challenging area of modern inorganic chemistry. New concept of chemical bonding and molecular structure have provided insights into the functioning of structure have provided insights into the functioning of vital components of biological systems. Chlorphyll, haemoglobin and vitamin B12 are coordination compounds of magnesium, iron and cobalt respectively
Variety of mattallurgical, processes industrial catalysts and analytical regents involve the use of coordination Compounds. Coordination Compounds also find many applications in electroplating, textile dyeing and medicinal chemistry.
Important and Application of Coordination Compounds
The coordination Compounds are of great importance. These compounds are widely present in the mineral, plant ☘️🌵 and animal world's and are known to play many important functions in the area of analytical chemistry, metallurgy, biological systems, industry and medicine 💊. These are described below:
- Coordination Compounds find use in many qualitative and quantitative chemical and analysis. The familiar colour reactions given by metal ions with a number of ligands (especially chelating ligands). as a result of formation of coordination entites, form the basis for their detection and estimation by coordination entites, form the basis for their detection and estimation by classical and instrumental methods of analysis. Examples of such reagents include EDTA, DMG (domethylgoxime), nitrose, naphthol, cupron, etc.
- Some important extraction processes of metals like those of silver and gold, make use of complex formation. Gold for example, combines with cyanide in the presence of oxygen and water of form the coordination entity in aqueous solution. Gold can be separated in matalic form from this solution by the addition of zinc.
- Coordination Compounds are of great importance in biological systems. The pigment responsible for photosynthesis, chlorophyll, is a coordination compounds of magnesium. Haemoglobin, the red pigment of blood which acts as oxygen carrier is a coordination Compound of iron. Vitamin B13, cyanocobalamin, the anti-pernicious anaemia factor, is a coordination compounds of cobalt.Among the other compounds of biological importance with coordination metal ions are the enzymis like, carboxypeptidase and carbonic anhydrase (catalysts of biological systems).
- There is growing interest in the use of chelate therapy in medicinal chemistry. An example is the treatment of problems caused by the presence of metals in toxic proportional in plant/ animal systems.
