eli5: What are chelates and ligands in relation to soil science?

Question

I’m trying so hard to concentrate in my soil science class, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a professor or teacher who was so difficult to understand

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

I’m presuming that the soil science definitions are pretty similar to the definition in other sciences. A chelate is a metal molecule that binds to and “holds” other molecules and a ligand is the molecule that is held by the chelate.

For example, in the blood, hemoglobin is a chelate. It contains iron (the metal atom) that oxygen and the proteins that make up hemoglobin (the ligands) bind to.