Question

Differentiate between an ionic bond and a covalent bond.

Answer 1

Hint: To answer this question you can think of the examples of each of them. Covalent bonds are formed in Methane and Ionic bonds are formed in sodium chloride. Now try to figure out the properties of bonds found in these compounds.

Complete step by step answer:
Let’s differentiate between an ionic bond and a covalent bond,

Ionic bonds	Covalent bonds
In ionic bonds, one atom donates an electron to stabilize the other atom.	In a covalent bond, the atoms are bound by the sharing of electrons.
Atoms that participate in an ionic bond have different electronegativity values from each other.	In a true covalent bond, If the electron is shared equally between the atoms forming a covalent bond, then the bond is said to be nonpolar.
A polar bond is formed by the attraction between oppositely-charged ions.	Usually, an electron is more attracted to one atom than to another, forming a polar covalent bond.
Here is the example - sodium and chloride form an ionic bond, to make NaCl. We can predict an ionic bond will form when two atoms have different electronegativity values.	Here is an example, the atoms in $H_{ 2 }O$, are held together by polar covalent bonds. Covalent compounds may dissolve in water, but don't dissociate into ions.

Therefore, we differentiated between an ionic bond and a covalent bond.

Note:
We should know that the only pure covalent bonds occur between identical atoms.
Ionic bonds form between a metal and a nonmetal, whereas, covalent bonds form between two nonmetals.