Ionic and Covalent Bonds

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An ionic bond is the transfer of valence electrons between atoms. It is a type of chemical bond that creates two oppositely charged ions. In ionic bonds, the metal loses electrons to become a positively charged cation, the non-metal accepts those electrons to become a negatively charged anion. Ionic bonds require an electron donor, metal, and an electron acceptor, nonmetal. By losing those electrons, these metals can achieve noble-gas configuration and satisfy the octet rule. When you have two atoms that are both nonmetals its a Covalent Bond. Covalent bonds are formed as a result of the sharing of one or more pairs of bonding electrons. The electronegativities of the two bonded atoms are either equal or the difference is no greater than 1.7. As long as the electronegativity difference is no greater than 1.7, the atoms can only share the bonding electrons. An example of a covalent bond would be water, its two hydrogen atoms with one oxygen atom (H2O). If two atoms differ considerably in their electronegativity than one of the atoms will lose its electron to the other atom. This results in a positively charged ion (cation) and negatively charged ion (anion). The bond between these two ions is called an ionic bond.If the electronegativity difference is greater than 1.7 then the higher electronegative atom has an electron attracting ability which is large enough to force the transfer of electrons from the lesser electronegative atom. an example of an ionic bond would be Sodium chloride. Covalent Bonds have weaker inner forces this allows molecules to break easily, which is why covalent bonds have low melting points. Ionic bonds on the other hand have stronger inner forces keeping the molecules closer and stronger together. A result of this is a high melting point for that chemical bond.Ionic bonds tend to form more crystalline substances made of ions, like

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