Denticity

In coordination chemistry, denticity (from Latin dentis 'tooth') refers to the number of donor groups in a given ligand that bind to the central metal atom in a coordination complex.

The denticity of a ligand is described with the Greek letter κ ('kappa').

[5][6] Polydentate ligands are chelating agents[7] and classified by their denticity.

Some atoms cannot form the maximum possible number of bonds a ligand could make.

In general, the stability of a metal complex correlates with the denticity of the ligands, which can be attributed to the chelate effect.

Atom with
monodentate ligands
Structure of the pharmaceutical Oxaliplatin , which features two different bidentate ligands.
Relationship between "linear" bi-, tri- and tetradentate ligands (red) bound to an octahedral metal center. The structures marked with * are chiral owing to the backbone of the tetradentate ligand.