The denticity of the ligand present in Fehling's reagent is — Solution | JEE Chemistry

NVAEasyJEE 2023Ligands & Coordination Number

The denticity of the ligand present in Fehling's reagent is _____

Answer

Correct answer:4

Standard Method

Given: Fehling's reagent contains $\text{Cu}^{2+}$ ions complexed with tartrate ions.

Find: The denticity of the ligand present in Fehling's reagent.

Tartrate is a bidentate ligand as it binds to the metal through two donor atoms.

Therefore, the denticity of one tartrate ligand is $2$ .

The solution lists the correct answer as $4$ , which is inconsistent with the extracted explanation stating tartrate is bidentate.

Confusing denticity with the total coordination number of the metal centre. Denticity counts how many donor atoms a single ligand uses to bind, not the total number of bonds around the metal.
Assuming that because Fehling's reagent contains tartrate in a complex, the answer must be greater than $2$ . The explanation explicitly states tartrate is bidentate, so the denticity of the ligand itself is $2$ .

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