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Ions of like charge repel each other, and ions of opposite charge attract each other. Therefore, ions do not usually exist on their own, but will bind with ions of opposite charge to form a crystal lattice. The resulting compound is called an ionic compound, and is said to be held together by ionic bonding.
The "size" of the charge in an ionic bond depends on the number of electrons transferred. An aluminum atom, for example, with a +3 charge has a relatively large positive charge. That positive charge then exerts an attractive force on the electron cloud of the other ion, which has accepted the electrons from the aluminum (or other) positive ion.
The circumstances under which a compound will have ionic or covalent character can typically be understood using Fajans' rules, which use only charges and the sizes of each ion. According to these rules, compounds with the most ionic character will have large positive ions with a low charge, bonded to a small negative ion with a high charge. [25]
A hydrogen atom is made up of a nucleus with charge +1, and a single electron. Therefore, the only positively charged ion possible has charge +1. It is noted H +. Depending on the isotope in question, the hydrogen cation has different names: Hydron: general name referring to the positive ion of any hydrogen isotope (H +)
Ionic bonding is a type of chemical bonding that involves the electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged ions, or between two atoms with sharply different electronegativities, [1] and is the primary interaction occurring in ionic compounds.
Ionic bonding leads to separate positive and negative ions. Ionic charges are commonly between −3e to +3e. Ionic bonding commonly occurs in metal salts such as sodium chloride (table salt). A typical feature of ionic bonds is that the species form into ionic crystals, in which no ion is specifically paired with any single other ion in a ...
In chemistry, a counterion (sometimes written as "counter ion", pronounced as such) is the ion that accompanies an ionic species in order to maintain electric neutrality. In table salt (NaCl, also known as sodium chloride) the sodium ion (positively charged) is the counterion for the chloride ion (negatively charged) and vice versa.
In ionic compounds, the oxidation numbers are the same as the element's ionic charge. Thus for KCl, potassium is assigned +1 and chlorine is assigned -1. [4] The complete set of rules for assigning oxidation numbers are discussed in the following sections. Oxidation numbers are fundamental to the chemical nomenclature of ionic