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Chemistry · Glossary

What is Unsaturated complexes?

Also known as: coordinatively unsaturated complex · vacant site

Definition 20.1 University Chemistry — Year 2 · Chapter 20 — Organometallic Catalysis: Elementary Steps and Cycles

A coordinatively unsaturated complex has fewer than 18 valence electrons (often 16) and can bind another ligand: it has a vacant site, a position of its coordination sphere free to receive a two-electron donor.

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