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Chemistry · Glossary

What is Spectrochemical series?

Definition 19.12 University Chemistry — Year 2 · Chapter 19 — Ligand Field Theory and Colour

The spectrochemical series orders ligands by the splitting they produce for a given metal ion:

IX−<BrX−<ClX−<FX−<OHX−<HX2O<NHX3<en<NOX2X−<CNX−<CO.\ce{I-} < \ce{Br-} < \ce{Cl-} < \ce{F-} < \ce{OH-} < \ce{H2O} < \ce{NH3} < \text{en} < \ce{NO2-} < \ce{CN-} < \ce{CO} .

For a given ligand, Δo\Delta_o also grows with the charge of the metal ion and down a group (4d and 5d complexes, larger than 3d, are almost always low spin).

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