In
inorganic chemistry
Inorganic chemistry deals with synthesis and behavior of inorganic and organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subjects of organic chemistry. The distinction between the two disc ...
, a homoleptic
chemical compound
A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one ele ...
is a
metal compound with all
ligand
In coordination chemistry, a ligand is an ion or molecule ( 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 ele ...
s identical.
The term uses the "
homo-" prefix to indicate that something is the same for all. Any metal species which has more than one type of ligand is heteroleptic.
Some compounds with names that suggest that they are homoleptic are in fact heteroleptic, because they have ligands in them which are not featured in the name. For instance