Hydroxyethylethylenediaminetriacetic acid also known as HEDTA is a

tricarboxylic acid A tricarboxylic acid is an organic carboxylic acid that contain three carboxyl functional groups (−COOH). A well-known example is citric acid. Promient examples Some prominent substituted tricarboxylic acids Citric acid, is used in the c ...

and

amine In chemistry, amines (, ) are organic compounds that contain carbon-nitrogen bonds. Amines are formed when one or more hydrogen atoms in ammonia are replaced by alkyl or aryl groups. The nitrogen atom in an amine possesses a lone pair of elec ...

. It is a

hexadentate A hexadentate ligand in coordination chemistry is a ligand that combines with a central metal atom with six bonds. One example of a hexadentate ligand that can form complexes with soft metal ions is TPEN. A commercially important hexadentate ligan ...

ligand In coordination chemistry, a ligand is an ion or molecule with a functional group that binds to a central metal atom to form a coordination complex. The bonding with the metal generally involves formal donation of one or more of the ligand's el ...

. It can

chelate Chelation () is a type of bonding of ions and their molecules to metal ions. It involves the formation or presence of two or more separate coordinate bonds between a polydentate (multiple bonded) ligand and a single central metal atom. These l ...

or form salts with many metals.

References

{{Reflist Tricarboxylic acids Chelating agents