Don't get me wrong, there are many swindles and cop-outs in VCE. Skipping necessary details, oversimplifying of ideas... but how VCE covers ligands is absolutely the worst of the worst.
Warning: If you learn anything here, you might answer your VCE questions incorrectly!
Ligands are actually covalent bonds! But you might ask: wait, covalent bonds are bonds between non-metals only! Incorrect: covalent bonds are any bond that involves the sharing of electrons in some sort of molecular orbital.
In any molecule, there will be molecular orbitals that do not correspond to the orbitals found in the model of the atom you studied in Unit 4. At a bond in between two atoms, orbitals of each atom overlap and either constructively interfere to form a bond, or destructively interfere to form an anti-bond (essentially no bond/interaction occurs)
Ligands are electron-rich species that can donate a pair of electrons to form a covalent bond. This is favourable, as cations are electrophiles (love electrons)
Thank you for allowing me to release a bit of knowledge about this, while also helping me revise. I hope it sparked some interest into the mystery and fun of chemistry. But for now, I suggest you quickly brainwash yourself and eat the following lie.
What you need to know for VCE
<lie>
Ligands are ion-dipole or ion-ion interactions (depends whether the ligand is an "ion" or a "dipole")
</lie>
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