The effect of trigonal bipyramidal distortion of pentacoordinate V IV O 2+ species on their structural, electronic and spectroscopic parameters was calculated by DFT methods. In particular i) the bis chelated species with [VO(LH -1 ) 2 ]2-stoichiometry formed in water with five α-hydroxycarboxylic acid ligands [glycolic (glycH), lactic (lactH), 2-hydroxyisobutyric (2-hibH), 2-ethyl-2-hydroxybutyric (2-ehbH) and 2-isopropyl-2-hydroxybutyric (2-iPrhbH) acids], ii) the bis complexes [VOL 2 ] formed in the solid state with three salicylaldimine derivatives [N-methylsalicylaldimine (MeSalH), N-isopropylo-methylsalicylaldimine (iPr-MeSalH) and N-methyl-o-tertbutyl-p-methylsalicylaldimine (tBu-MeSalH)] and iii) the solid bis chelated compounds with composition [VOL 2 ] formed