Ionic and Covalent Bonding Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ionic and Covalent Bonding - Essay Example Formation of ionic bond takes when an electron is transferred from a non metal to metal making the two atoms have partial positive and negative charge hence they attract one another. Reaction between non-metals and metals results into electrons being transferred from the metal to non-metal and, therefore, the metal and non-metal forms ions. On the other hand, the compound formed is called an ionic compound (Gaskell 2008, p. 17). In the above example, sodium atom loses an electron to the chlorine atom. Therefore, sodium atom, therefore, becomes partially positively charged while the chlorine atom becomes partially negatively charged hence an ionic bond is formed (Gaskell 2008, p. 18). Ionic bonds do not have a definite shape while covalent bonds have definite shapes that can be predicted. In addition, covalent bonds can be broken to the original atoms which made the molecule because the atoms are close to one another so as to share electrons (Engel and Reid 2012, p.43). While, ionic bonds are solid, covalent bonds molecules are gaseous or liquids. Compounds that have covalent bonds have a lower melting point than ionic bonds because they have weak van der waals forces that do not require a high amount of energy. On the other hand, ionic compound has higher melting points because their bonds are stable and hence high amount of energy is required to the bonds (Atkins & Paula 2012, p.54). Ionic bonds also form crystalline atoms and in solution or molten state they conduct electricity and are also polar bonds. Therefore, most of them dissolve in water but are insoluble in solvents that are not polar (Silbey et al. 2004 p.30). Ionic bonds are formed between a metal and non-metal atoms. For the formation of the bond to occur, the atoms must have high difference in electron negativity and it is made when the metal atom loses an electron to the non-metal making it