Question

What is an Ionic bond? With two suitable examples explain the difference between an ionic bond and a covalent bond.

Answer 1

Hint: Ionic bonds are the bonds formed between a metal and a nonmetal in which the metal donates its electrons and the non-metals accept those electrons while covalent bonds are formed between two non- metals and overlapping of a half-filled atomic orbitals of both the atoms take place.

Complete answer:
Now, we know that the ionic bonds are formed when there is an electronegativity difference between two atoms. In this type of bond, metal (electropositive in nature) donates its electrons and the non-metals (electronegative in nature) accepts those electrons. This bond is formed between two oppositely charged ions that are cation and anion.
If we see the difference between ionic bonds and covalent bonds:
- Ionic bonds are the bonds formed between a metal and a non-metal while covalent bonds are formed between two nonmetals.
- Ionic bonds are formed when there is a high electronegativity difference between the atoms while covalent bonds are formed between the atoms where there is not much electronegativity difference.
- Ionic bonds do not form with the overlapping orbitals while covalent bonds are formed due to overlapping of half-filled atomic orbitals of both the atoms.
For example- In NaCl, there is an ionic bond because sodium is a metal and chlorine is a non-metal and it is represented as:
$N{a^ + }C{l^ - }$
If we take the example of methane $(C{H_4})$ .In this compound, the atomic orbital of carbon overlaps with that of hydrogen and forms a covalent bond because there is not much electronegativity difference between carbon and hydrogen.

Note:
Note that there is one more type of bond which is known as coordinate bond. Coordinate bonds are formed in the coordinate complexes. It is formed when an atom or molecule donates its electron pairs in the vacant orbitals of the central metal atom or ion. So we should not get confused between coordinate bonds and covalent bonds.