how can a solid structure be a conductor when in a solution or molten and how do ions move freely??

Question

Im confused about the types of crystals ionic, metallic, molecular, and macromolecular and what it means by they are conductors (Electricity) when they are molten?? what does molten mean?? any examples ?? is it something to do with electrolysis.. HELP!! lol i have a GCSE chem exam and i am not very good at chemistry nd what is it with the water solubility thing??? and can someone also explain the way ionic structures cleave because they are brittle??

Answer 1

ok, crystals are Ionic because they consist of a positive and negative charge which is why they are good conductors of electricity because they consist of these seperate charges. Metallic is for metal. Metal is a good conductor because metal consists of cations(positive charge) and valence electrons(neg. charge). When you run an electric current through a metal, the cations attract the neg. charged electric current. some solids don't conduct electricy in the solid state but if you melt it(def. of molten) it allows the ions(neg.& pos.) to seperate making a good conductor of electricity. Same thing happens when you dissolve a substance in a solution because the ions break up. Some substances are strong electrolytes and some are not. This has to do with the fact that the Ions do not dissolve or seperate completely to attract electricity. The reason ionic crystals break is because since they consist of pos. and neg. charges, they attract eachother, however, the reason they break is because when you try forcing the shape the ions do not slide past eachother like metal does, they rather repel against this force and eventually break. ok, when things are soluble and are not has to do with there ability to seperate into Ions. Some substances will not dissolve and precipitate. I do not know if you have this but there is a table of specific rules on the solubility of certain substances. ALL substances will dissolve if they consist of alkali salts or certain transition metals.(alkali section of P.Table and middle) and Ammonia(NH3). Nitrate with any metal and chlorate with any metal is soluble in water. I am going to say salts because this means that any substance with a salt is any substance with an alkali metal or other metal. Chloride salts are soluble except with Ag, Pb, and Hg
Most of these substances below are Insoluble and will form a precipitate(solid). Any of these substances with anything are mostly insoluble------> Carbonates(CO3 minus 2 charge), Phospahtes(PO4 minus 3 charge), chromates(CrO4 minus 2 charge), sulfides(S depends with compount), and hydroxides(OH minus 1 charge). I hope this helped. :)

Answer 2

A solid ionic substance such as salt (NaCl) is composed of ions in a crystal lattice. When the solid melts the ions are no longer held together in the rigid crystal. These ions are free to flow (like water) and carry the charge elsewhere.

Molten means that something is in a thick liquid state. Molten is like lava flowing from a volcano. It flows, but it flows slowly.

When an ionic solid is struck along a cleavage line the attraction (bonds) between ions along that line are broken and the ionic solid can split in a flat surface along that line.

Answer 3

Because of the friction of a solid