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Chemistry Forums for Students => Undergraduate General Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: unab1etoch3m on September 03, 2019, 10:34:55 PM

Title: Covalent vs Ionic compound
Post by: unab1etoch3m on September 03, 2019, 10:34:55 PM

I need help with ionic and covalent bonds. I dont quite understand how they work, and my homework is asking me to seperate a combination of elements based on ionic and covalent. I kind of get how theyre different, but I dont understand how we are supposed to separate a group of elements into one or the other.

Title: Re: Covalent vs Ionic compound
Post by: chenbeier on September 04, 2019, 02:39:11 AM

Metal to no metal ionic bond
No metal  to no metal  covalent bons
Lookup examples by yourself.

Title: Re: Covalent vs Ionic compound
Post by: Enthalpy on September 04, 2019, 02:59:49 AM

Or is it a matter of electronegativity difference maybe? I wouldn't call lead tetraethyl an ionic compound.

Title: Re: Covalent vs Ionic compound
Post by: Vidya on September 05, 2019, 02:38:08 AM

Yes it is decided by difference in electronegativity.Check this video for more clear understanding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv5wl_OR0mA

However there is one more factor that many metal to non metals bonds are nearly covalent if the oxidation number of metal is very high .Like in tetraethyl lead   ..lead has very high oxidation number of +4 so it has very high polarizability power.