Pentadentate ligand

A pentadentate ligand (or quinquidentate ligand) is a ligand that coordinates via five donor atoms.

There are different possible ways for a ligand to arrange around an ion. For an octahedral coordination with six positions, the possible arrangements of a linear pentadentate ligand are designated by ffm_s ffm_a fff fmf fm_am_a fm_sm_a fm_sm_s fm_am_s where each letter f or s represents three consecutive donor atoms: f represents facial fac arrangement, m is meridianal mer, a is "anti" and s is "syn" for positioning of the mer arrangement relative to other donors.

For a chain branched at the donor atom the tertiary atom will have two chains of length one and one of length one attached. The pattern can use parenthesis: () to indicate a side chain, e.g. NNM(N)N. For octahedral coordination there are four arrangements designated: f(m)m f(f)f f(f)m_a and f(f)m_s where the parenthesis ow indicate how the side chain participates in coordination.

Ligands with four donor atoms on four chains around a central donor atom, will organise around the metal atom equatorially.

The metal may be five-coordinate with arrangements being square-pyramidal or trigonal-bipyramidal, or somewhere between the two.

<nowiki>2,2':6',2:6,2:6,2'</nowiki>-Quinquepyridine is fairly rigid, and tries to be in a plane, so coordination will be pentagonal planar. For silver it is planar, but for rhenium it slightly twists to a helix.