What is meant by a kelate compound?

1 Answer
Apr 24, 2018

I think you mean #"chelate compound"#...

Explanation:

A chelate features in coordination chemistry when the ONE ligand has TWO (or more) donors that bind to a metal centre... An example of a chelating ligand is ethylenediammine:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelation

And since the ligand has TWO donors constrained by the ethylene backbone, the second donor is likely to coordinate also to give a 5-membered ring containing the metal. The word #"chelate"# comes from the Greek and literally means #"claw"#...

openclipart.org

Chelation is a feature of coordination chemistry. Typical chelating ligands, are diamines, #"EDTA"#, diphosphines, phenanthroline...