The handedness structure of octahedral metal complexes with chelating ligands

Inorganic chiral compounds are a major focus in today's research. Although there has been a long history of chemical practice in this area and the geometric principles are clearly understood, there has been no single accepted method of assessing chirality in all cases. A variety of methods, some with conflicting conventions, have been developed, but most of them have been presented in isolation and the relationships between them are not well established. In this review, relevant materials are analyzed and methods are contrasted and compared so that some significant new theoretical features are established. Most of the published methods have been modified in such a way that the relationships between them are revealed and subsequently a consistent methodology is established. By reviewing the published material concerning terminal chelate rings and their orientations, both the rings and their donor atoms are considered at the same time to provide a procedure which is more chemically relevant than that presently used in which donor atoms are ignored. When all the relevant materials already developed from chemical practice are brought together, it is possible to generate a new theoretical system that is consistent with all previous methods and can be used with confidence in the future. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.