What is the difference in the way NaCl and O2 hold together as molecules?

Answer 1

NaCl is an ionic bond, where as O2 is a covalent bond. the difference is that the Sodium and the Chlorine are attracted by positive and negative force. Sodium mostly gives up it's extra electron, rather than sharing it. In Ionic bonds, a metal always dominates. Oxygen bonds to itself because it contains the right amount of electrons in it's outer shell to fill the shell of another oxygen atom. This is a Covalent bond. Covalent bonds result in the equal sharing of pairs of electrons.

Answer 2

As the others state, NaCl is held together via an ionic bond, and O2 is held together by a covalent bond.

What's the difference between these two kinds of bonds?
When a chemical bond foms, the outer electrons of two atoms rearrange their locations around the atoms so that the overall energy of the resulting structure (atomic nuclei plus electrons) is lower than before the bond was formed. This electron rearrangement can result in either the electrons ending up mainly between the two atoms, shared equally between them, or with the electrons mainly around one of the atoms and not the other. The first is called a covalent bond, the second is an ionic bond.

In an ionic bond, one atom grabs the outermost electron(s) from the other atom. This makes one atom negatively charged, and the other positively charged, and the two atoms cling together by electrostatic attraction. In a purely ionic bond, the atom that grabs an electon, keeps the electron close to it, so the electron never passes back and forth between the two atoms. All the attractive force holding the two atoms together is due to electrostatic (Coulomb) attraction.

In a covalent bond, the outer electrons (which are responsible for chemical bonding) end up repositioning themselves so that they are on average smack in the middle between the two atoms. No net electric charge is added to or subtracted from the atoms, so there is no electrostatic force holding the atoms together. Instead, the attractive force is quantum mechanical in origin, and comes from the reshaping of the electron distribution around the atomic nuclei.

To really understand the mechanism of chemical bonding, requires understanding the mathematical equations describing the quantum mechanical structure of molecules. In reality, the distinction between ionic and covalent bonds is arbitrary: Bonds have more or less of ionic or covalent nature, but are rarely all one or the other. But the concepts of covalent and ionic bonding, although approximate, are useful, as are many of the other practical rules describing molecular structure.

Answer 3

in sodium chloride, the sodium (Na) is a metal while that of the chlorine is not, i.e. it is non-metal, it belongs to halogen family group 7A. with such condition they can only be held together through ionic bond. ionic bond is a type of bond with which there is a transfer of electron. in this case the excess electron in the chlorine is transfered to sodium and thus ionic bond is formed. for the oxygen molecule, they are both non-metal belonging to group 6A. non-metal can only be held by covalent bond. covalent bond is a type of bond in which there is a sharing of electrons. in this case both share electrons with each other to satisfy the octet rule (eight-electron rule) causing them to become stable in that situation and thus producing the covalent bond.
p.s. the octet rule also applies to the NaCl...

Answer 4

Well NaCl is a polar covalent bond
Na+ + Cl- --> NaCl
O2 is an ionic bond and share their electrons.

Answer 5

water is covalent which means they share electrons and nacl is ionic which means they transfer electrons

Answer 6

covalent bond for water and ionic for table salt.