What is an ionic bond, and is a metal and a gas more likely to form an ionic bond? Why???

Question

If you have any other knwledge about covalent bonds etc that would be a huge help too.

Answer 1

Take sodium chloride for example. Sodium(Na) is a metal, Chlorine(Cl) is a gas. Sodium has one extra electron in its outer shell. Chlorine has 7 electrons in its outer shell, and only needs one more to fill the shell. So the sodium atom "gives" its extra electron to the chlorine atom, so both will be happy. The electron now orbits the chlorine atom only. However, now the sodium atom has a net positive charge +, and the chlorine atom has a net negative charge -. Opposite charges attract, and this attraction is what keeps the new NaCl molecule stuck together.

Now, in covalent bonds, the atoms "share" electrons. A perfect example are diamonds. Diamonds are pure carbon in crystal form. Each carbon atom has 4 electrons in its outer shell, halfway between having zero and having 8. So the carbon atom either wants to get 4 more electrons from somewhere to fill its outer shell, or it wants to give away its 4 electrons so it can lose its shell, because its inner shell is full. So what each carbon atom does is share one electron with four of its neighbor atoms, who each share one of theirs with it also. this gives each atom the "illusion" of having 4+4=8 electrons in its outer shell, and everybody is happy!

Imagine now, a piece of graph paper. It has vertical and horizontal lines. Imagine each intersection point as being a carbon atom, and each line between each 2 points as a pair of electrons that is being shared by each of the two points(atoms). so each point has 4 lines, or 8 electrons around it. In a nice regular grid like structure, a crystal structure. Like diamond. Or silicon. Now, each electron is actually not "bound" to any specific atom, like in an ionic bond. Instead, these electrons float around the crystal structure.

Now, most gases on the periodic table are on the far right side, and have 5, 6 , or 7 electrons in their outer shell. So they are more likely(because they are closer to 8 than 4 is for example) to want to get 8 by taking electrons instead of sharing. And most metals on the table all have 2 electrons in their outer shell(iron, gold, silver, copper, etc.) so they are more likely to give away electrons. That's why metals and gases are more likely to form ionic bonds than say semicondutive elements are. (There is a third type of bond, called the metallic bond, but I won't bother with that here.)

Answer 2

Ionic bonds are forces that holds a metallic and non-metallic ion at the same time. even as covalent bonds are forces which holds a non-metallic and non-metallic ion at the same time. Ionic bonds are formed in ionic compound even as covalent bonds are formed in covalent compound. NaBr is classed as ionic compound which has ionic bond as Na is a metallic ion and Br is a non-metallic ion. wish this facilitates =P