Neutral-molecule ligands: Names and abbreviations

Contribution from Axel's Collection of Notes and Communications
Subject: Coordination Chemistry
Edited and published by Axel Drefahl • www.axeleratio.com

Indexes for neutral-molecule ligands have been generated to provide quick identification of frequently occurring ligands and look-up of appropriate short forms of their names for use in line formulae of complex molecules. The indexes are:

The full name of a neutral-molecule ligand is the same as the full name of the neutral molecule. Abbreviations are expected to be in lower-case letters. A few exceptions exist including the use of an atomic symbol in its well-known form within an abreviation.

Solvent molecules as ligands

Fequently used solvents are often identified via acronym, which typically is a string of upper-case letters. According to recommendations of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), solvents that behave as ligands should be in lower case letters. Thus, the solvent DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) is denoted dmso in context with a coordination entity, and DMF (N,N-dimethylformamide) is encoded as dmf.

Ambiguity of ligand name abbreviations

For same ligands different abbreviations are in use. For example, instead of cyclen and cyclam the short forms [12]aneN4 and [14]aneN4 are also used, which relate in a more procedural manner to their systematic names 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane and 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane, respectively. Although the latter forms are more consistent with a molecular-structure-based notation, they require special mark-up, which may complicate their use with certain documentation platforms and search services.

Selected references

[Gisp2008] Joan Ribas Gispert: Coordination Chemistry. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.KGaA, Weinheim, Germany, 2008. ISBN: 978-3-527-31802-5
Introduction: Definitions, History, Nomenclature (pages XXIX to XL)
[IUPAC2005] Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry. IUPAC Recommendations 2005 Prepared for publication by Neil G. Connelly, Ture Damhus, Richard M. Hartshorn, and Alan T. Hutton. RCS Publishing, Thomas Graham House, Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 0WF, UK, 2005.
Section IR-4.4.4: Ligand abbreviations (also: Table VII)



Last update was made on May 3 in 2009 by Axel Drefahl
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