Hapticity vs. Denticity

Hapticitynoun

(chemistry) A measure of the number of atoms of a ligand that are coordinated to a central atom.

Hapticitynoun

The property of being haptic; relation to the sense of touch.

Hapticity

Hapticity is the coordination of a ligand to a metal center via an uninterrupted and contiguous series of atoms. The hapticity of a ligand is described with the Greek letter η ('eta').

Denticitynoun

(chemistry) The number of donor groups from a ligand to the central atom of a coordination compound

Denticity

Denticity refers to the number of donor groups in a single ligand that bind to a central atom in a coordination complex. In many cases, only one atom in the ligand binds to the metal, so the denticity equals one, and the ligand is said to be monodentate (sometimes called unidentate).