Can all elements bond both ionically and covalently? Why or why not?

Question

I'm having a bit of trouble grasping the whole "bonding" thing! HELP!

Answer 1

A covalent bond is a bond in which the atoms making up the resulting molecule "share" the electrons in the form of covalent bonds.
An ionic bond is an extremely one sided "sharing" of electrons, so one sided, one atom is said to have completely stripped of an electron from another atom.

What determines if the bond is covalent or ionic is the difference in the electronegativities of the two atoms bonding. If the electronegativity difference is high enough, the bond is said to be ionic. If the difference in electronagativities is significant, but not quite to the level of a full ionic bond, the bond is said to be polar (which may or may not mean that the resulting molecule is polar, this depends on several things).

Looking at a chart of [Pauling] electronegativities,
http://www.psigate.ac.uk/newsite/reference/plambeck/chem1/p01244a.htm
one can see that most elements are somewhere in the 1 to 2 range, with only a few elements getting much lower or higher than this value. Unless the difference is high enough (usually a difference of about 1.5 is considered ionic), then the bond will just be polar, or less so.

So, all elements have the potential to theoretically bond ionically, but only in certain combinations with other elements.
For example, you will never see an ionic bond between Carbon and Hydrogen since the difference is just .4, but an ionic bond between Lithium and Fluorine is easy to make with a huge difference of 3.0.

Answer 2

The only pure covalent bonds are between homonuclear diatomics such as H2, O2, etc. All other bonds have a certain amount of ionic character which increases with the difference in electronegativity between the atoms.

There are no "pure" ionic bonds. NaCl, for instance, has about 96% ionic character. A compound is considered to be an ionic compound if it is capable of forming electrolytes.

Answer 3

Simply put, it all depends on the electronegativity difference between the elements. Two good examples are sodium chloride (NaCl), an ionic solid and chlorine gas (Cl2). In NaCl, there is a large difference in electronegativity and the bond is ionic (an electron is transferred, not shared). In chlorine gas, the difference in electronegativity is zero and the bond is perfectly covalent. There's another type of bond, the metallic, but let's keep things simple for now.

Answer 4

Not all. It depend on the number of valency electrons and whether they are metals or not.
Those elements with 5/6/7 electrons bonding with elements with 1/2/3 electrons form ionic bonds. However, if elements with 5/6/7 valency electrons(non-metals) have bonds with other non-metals, they form covalent bond. Likewise for metals(elements with 1/2/3 valency electrons) which have bonds with other metals.
Elements with 4 valency electrons can do either ionic or covalent bonds with other elements.

Answer 5

Bonding is in reality a force of attraction which keeps the atoms of one or more elements together such that they remain combined in a compound.
all bonding that takes place between different atoms is in reality controlled by the energetics of the process. if the process is energetically favorable then that process is feasible, otherwise it isn't.
[ by energetics , i mean the heat of the reaction and the free energy content of the reaction]
so essentially if the process is feasible then an element may form all types of bonds - ionic,covalent&coordinate(dative) bonds.
however generally the bonds are separate i.e. elements with a large difference in electronegativity form an ionic compound and those with a small difference in electronegativity form a covalent compound.

Answer 6

ionic bonds usually form between two compunds because they're very different in electronegativity. covalent bonds from between elements when electronegativity between then is not so different from one another. An element can ONLY bond ionically OR covalently, not both.

Answer 7

it just depends how much energy is put into the bond, it is very hard for small noble elements to have any bonds, but has the elements get larger the outer electrons have a harder time staying in there normal orbit, and they are more likely to be shared or hogged by other elements in the area. so if there is enough energy then every element can have both bonds.

Answer 8

It's either a ionic bond, or a covalent bond. I can't recall which is which, but one contains a metal and a non-metal, and the other contains two non-metals. It can't be both.

Answer 9

No not all elements I think. And i don't remember why or why not i think its due to the stable octets i guess