How is electronegativity related to the ionic

Chemistry Bonding Basics Ionic Bonding. Chuck W. Jun 16, Related questions Do metals donate or accept electrons? What is ionic bonding? What is a transfer of electrons? How does ionic bonding work? Elements with great differences in electronegativity tend to form ionic bonds. Atoms of elements with similar electronegativity tend to form covalent bonds.

Pure covalent bonds result when two atoms of the same electronegativity bond. Intermediate differences in electronegativity between covalently bonded atoms lead to polarity in the bond.

As a rule, an electronegativity difference of 2 or more on the Pauling scale between atoms leads to the formation of an ionic bond. A difference of less than 2 between atoms leads to covalent bond formation. The nearer the difference in electronegativity between atoms comes to zero, the purer the covalent bond becomes and the less polarity it has.

Carbon, with an electronegativity of 2. The electronegativity values of elements commonly found in organic molecules are given in Table. Previous Ionic Bonding. Removing book from your Reading List will also remove any bookmarked pages associated with this title. Are you sure you want to remove bookConfirmation and any corresponding bookmarks?

My Preferences My Reading List. As an example, consider the bond that occurs between an atom of potassium and an atom of fluorine. Using the table, the difference in electronegativity is equal to 4. Since the difference in electronegativity is relatively large, the bond between the two atoms is ionic.

Since the fluorine atom has a much larger attraction for electrons than the potassium atom does, the valence electron from the potassium atom is completely transferred to the fluorine atom.

The diagram below shows how difference in electronegativity relates to the ionic or covalent character of a chemical bond. A bond in which the electronegativity difference is less than 1. However, at this point we need to distinguish between two general types of covalent bonds. A nonpolar covalent bond is a covalent bond in which the bonding electrons are shared equally between the two atoms. In a nonpolar covalent bond, the distribution of electrical charge is balanced between the two atoms.

Figure 3. A nonpolar covalent bond is one in which the distribution of electron density between the two atoms is equal. The two chlorine atoms share the pair of electrons in the single covalent bond equally, and the electron density surrounding the Cl 2 molecule is symmetrical.

An example would be a bond between chlorine and bromine. Figure 4. In the polar covalent bond of HF, the electron density is unevenly distributed.

There is a higher density red near the fluorine atom, and a lower density blue near the hydrogen atom. A bond in which the electronegativity difference between the atoms is between 0.