Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => Inorganic Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: mazda215 on November 29, 2010, 09:28:41 PM
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Hi, i just need to know what kind of chemical bonding glass and ruby is...and if its possible explain abit about why theyre that type of chemical bonding whether it be ionic,covalent,etc type of bonding...thanks if anyone replies
i looked around and found that glass is supposed to be covalent bonding but it didnt explain why it was ???
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Maybe this image will help a bit.
http://www.utas.edu.au/sciencelinks/chemincon/files/s1_grow/s1_soils/bonding/network.html (http://www.utas.edu.au/sciencelinks/chemincon/files/s1_grow/s1_soils/bonding/network.html)
Silicone Oxide is a comon type of glass. Look at how everything is bonded to each other. It's a covalent network.
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If you want to talk about the bonding you first need to identify the elements involved in each material.
Once you have that you can answer the questions that help you categorize the material, such as whether the bonding is covalent or ionic.
Do you know what criteria are used to distinguish between ionic and covalent bonds?
Network just means that this is an extended lattice. An example of a non-network solid is something like CO2 solid (dry ice) where the bonds are only located between discrete CO2 molecules. So CO2 is a molecular solid. SiO2 is not because there are no discrete "SiO2" molecules. The bonds just continue on and on forever.
Remember that these are categories used to simplify understanding. They are not perfect and often they break down and/or there is ambiguity.
If this is a homework problem (which is what it sounds like) then is there a section in your text book that discusses the best ways to categorize materials? I ask because each textbook has slightly different terms and definitions that are often contradictory, so searching the internet for "glass" + "covalent bonding" (e.g.) isn't really the best way to do your homework properly... (if this isn't for homework than just ignore this.)