We just finished dealing with intrermolecular/interionic attractive forces so I'm guessing it has a lot to do with those. Thanks!
2007-11-08 08:14:52 · 1 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
Excellent question.
Silver chloride is insoluble, but potassium chloride is soluble, even though they have the same kind of crystal structure and the K+ and Ag+ ions are of about the same size. So something more is going on than just ionic forces, which should be near enough the same in both cases.
Measurements of the heat of formation of silver chloride show that the interaction between the silver and chloride is stronger than could be explained just by ionic attraction. This is explained by saying that in addition to the Ionic attraction, there is some covalent bonding. This happens because the electrons which "belong" to the chloride actually spend part of their time around the silver ion which, unlike the potassium ion, has low lying empty orbitals that electrons can fit into.
2007-11-08 08:33:03 · answer #1 · answered by Facts Matter 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋