The rate of substitution of the chloride and aqua moieties from the platinum(II)-amine complexes, viz. [Pt(dien)Cl]Cl (Pt1-Chloro) and [Pt(en)(NH 3 )Cl]Cl (Pt2-Chloro) and their corresponding aqua analogues, viz. [Pt(dien)(OH 2 )] (ClO 4 ) 2 (Pt1-Aqua) and [Pt(en)(NH 3 )(OH 2 )](ClO 4 ) 2 (Pt2-Aqua), by a series of neutral and anionic nucleophiles,viz. thiourea (TU), 1,3-dimethyl-2-thiourea (DMTU), 1,1,3,3-tetramethyl-2-thiourea (TMTU), iodide (I ) ) and thiocyanate (SCN ) ), was determined under pseudo first-order conditions as a function of concentration and temperature using UV/Visible spectrophotometry and standard stopped-flow techniques. The observed pseudo first-order rate constants for the substitution reactions obeyed the simple rate law k obs =k 2 [Nucleophile]. Second-order kinetics and negative activation entropies, ca. )93 J K )1 mol )1 and )71 J K )1 mol )1 , for the chloro and aqua complexes respectively, support an associative mode of activation. The rate of substitution of both the chloro and aqua moieties are observed to decrease with an increase in the steric bulk of the neutral nucleophiles, whilst rate of substitution by SCN ) was observed to be faster than that of I ) , in correlation with the observed nucleophilicities of the two nucleophiles. A comparison of the second-order rate constants, k 2 , at 298 K, obtained for the substitution reactions of Pt1 and Pt2 shows that an increase in chelation in moving from Pt2 to Pt1 results in a corresponding increase in the reactivity, by a factor of ca. 3, (28.31±0.15 and 8.02±0.13 M )1 s )1 for Pt1 and Pt2 respectively, in the case of substitution of the aqua species by TU). Computational analysis of the chloro complexes, viz. Pt1-Chloro, Pt2-Chloro and [Pt(NH 3 ) 3 Cl]Cl (Pt3) support this conclusion by demonstrating that the Pt-N bond trans to the leaving group is shortened and that the Pt-Cl bond is lengthened when chelation is increased from Pt3 to Pt1. Consequently, these results suggest that the increase in reactivity of Pt1 over Pt2, promoted by increased chelation, is as a result of ground state destabilization.