A chemical compound formed when ammonia molecules bond with a metal ion or metal salt, used extensively in coordination chemistry and manufacturing.
From ammonia plus the suffix '-ine.' The term developed in late 19th-century chemistry when scientists discovered that ammonia could form stable complexes with metals, requiring new terminology.
Ammines are metal-ammonia handshakes—the ammonia molecule bonds to a metal ion like a ligand holding onto a dance partner, and these bonds are fundamental to everything from industrial catalysts to the blue color of some gemstones.
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