Help chemistry alevel

Help, I don’t get why the formula of compound a has 3 cl and the markscheme answer which I have jotted down in purple has 2 cl
Plz explain I’m so lost 😭 I’ve got exams next month

(edited 11 months ago)

Reply 1

user23184

It mentions in the question that compound I had a chloride ion (Cl-) and a complex, J.
The compound is the complex + a chloride ion
Therefore, looking at the empirical formula, CoN4H12Cl3, we would remove one Cl to find the complex, making the formula of complex J only CoN4H12Cl2

The question is only asking you to draw the complex excluding the chloride ion, hence the answer from the mark scheme.

Edit: Sorry, meant to add this the first time but that is also why the complex is positively charged, because the Cl- ion is present to balance it