Question

How do ionic compounds form?

Answer 1

An ionic bond refers to an electrostatic force of attraction between two atoms having opposite charges. This bond occurs when a transfer of an electron from a metal to a non-metal takes place.

Complete answer:
- Ionic compounds are composed of ions which are formed by loss or gain of electrons.
- The ions formed by an atom depends upon the atomic structure and the number of valence electrons of that atom.
- Ionic bonds are formed when there is a transfer of electrons between the atoms.
- An ionic compound is made up of ions held together by a strong electrostatic force called ionic bonding.
- Atoms that gain an electron and obtain a net negative charge are anions. Atoms that lose electrons and obtain a net positive charge are called cations.
- Anions tend to be non-metals while the cations tend to be metals.
- The ionic compound is neutral overall, but it consists of positively charged ions (cations) and negatively charged ions (anions).
- Ionic compounds have a strong force of attraction between positive and negative ions, which makes these compounds solid and not easily breakable.
- Since they have significant force of attraction between them, it requires a large amount of energy to break the ionic bonds. Due to this is the reason they have high melting and boiling points.

Note: Pure ionic compounds do not exist. This is because the vicinity of the species involved in the bonding allows some degree of sharing electron density between them. Hence, all ionic bonds have some covalent character.