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Anhydrous AlCl3 is covalent but hydrated AlCl3.6H2O is ionic because -
A.AlCl3 has planar structure
B.AlCl3 dissolves in CS2
C.IE of Al is low
D.Hydration energy of all compensates the IE

Answer
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Hint:The meaning of anhydrous is that, if a substance is anhydrous it means it contains no water. When we say that a substance is hydrated we mean that the mentioned substance contains water in them.

Complete answer:
AlCl3 is covalent while hydrated AlCl3 is ionic because we know that 3rd ionization enthalpy of Al is very high so, therefore it uses a lot of energy for the required in conversion of Al to Al3+ .
Al(g) + 5114 kJ/mol Al3+(g) + 3e+
Therefore, we can say that it prefers to form covalent bonds with Cl atoms .
However, it is seen that, when AlCl3 is dissolved in water, it then undergoes the hydration process releasing a lot of energy
AlCl3+H2 AlCl3.6H2O + E
Where E is energy, and this same energy is enough for removing 3e from the Al atom .
In fact, it is seen that Al does not exist as Al3+ but exist as [Al(H2O)6]+
[Al(H2O)6]+ + Cl+
Thus , we can conclude that the hexa - hydrated aluminium chloride is ionic in nature.
Now due to high polarisation power of Al3+ , the anhydrous AlCl3 is covalent in nature .
Once it is hydrated it forms as -
AlCl3 + 6H2O [Al(H2O)6]+ + 3Cl
Because of the hydration energy power of the Al3+ is higher than ionization energy, therefore the AlCl3.6H2O is ionic .

Hence, option D is correct.
Note:
We should keep in mind that the Ionic bonds result from transfer of electrons, while the covalent bonds are formed by sharing of electrons . It is known that Ionic bonds are electrostatic in nature, which results from the attraction of the positive and negative ions and that in turn result from the electron transfer process and also the charge separation between covalently bonded atoms is less extreme.
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