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The compounds with equal electronegativity, such as Cl 2 are placed in the covalent corner, while the ionic corner has compounds with large electronegativity difference, such as NaCl (table salt). The bottom side (from metallic to covalent) contains compounds with varying degree of directionality in the bond.
Although the bond in a compound like X+Y- may be considered to be 100% ionic, it will always have some degree of covalent character. When two oppositely charged ions (X+ and Y-) approach each other, the cation attracts electrons in the outermost shell of the anion but repels the positively charged nucleus.
There is no precise value that distinguishes ionic from covalent bonding, but an electronegativity difference of over 1.7 is likely to be ionic while a difference of less than 1.7 is likely to be covalent. [21] Ionic bonding leads to separate positive and negative ions. Ionic charges are commonly between −3e to +3e.
Covalent bonds are generally formed between two nonmetals. There are several types of covalent bonds: in polar covalent bonds, electrons are more likely to be found around one of the two atoms, whereas in nonpolar covalent bonds, electrons are evenly shared. Homonuclear diatomic molecules are purely covalent.
Covalent and ionic bonding form a continuum, with ionic character increasing with increasing difference in the electronegativity of the participating atoms. Covalent bonding corresponds to sharing of a pair of electrons between two atoms of essentially equal electronegativity (for example, C–C and C–H bonds in aliphatic hydrocarbons).
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]
Ionic compounds can also be produced from their constituent ions by evaporation of their solvent, precipitation, freezing, a solid-state reaction, or the electron transfer reaction of reactive metals with reactive non-metals, such as halogen gases. Ionic compounds typically have high melting and boiling points, and are hard and brittle.
Thus, bonding is considered ionic where the ionic character is greater than the covalent character. The larger the difference in electronegativity between the two types of atoms involved in the bonding, the more ionic (polar) it is. Bonds with partially ionic and partially covalent character are called polar covalent bonds. For example, Na–Cl ...