[noob_]

As the topic's name says.
why is beryllium hydride covalent bonded and not ionic?
Please explain thoroughly as i've been trying to find the answer for ages but have found no reliable sources...
Thank you

[sjb]

What do you consider to be an ionic bond? Or a covalent one?

[sciencenerd]

well a covalent bond is a bond between a two metals...and ionic is a bond between a non metal and metal so idk

[cliverlong]

As the topic's name says.
why is beryllium hydride covalent bonded and not ionic?
Please explain thoroughly as i've been trying to find the answer for ages but have found no reliable sources...
Thank you

Charge density of Be²⁺,  mate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_earth_metal#Beryllium

[Schrödinger]

well a covalent bond is a bond between a two metals...and ionic is a bond between a non metal and metal so idk

Every bond has its own % ionic character. No bond is completely ionic, although there can be bonds that are completely covalent. This would depend on the electronegativity difference between the bonding atoms, not whether the atoms are metals or non-metals.

But there are cases where you can tell if a bond is more covalent....Fajan's rules

[Prof. Bohr]

A covalent bond is a shared pair of electrons. An Ionic bond is electrostatic interactions between oppositely charged ions.
So you have to consider electronegativity. A ball park figure on the pauling scale(of electroneg) of a predominantly ionic bond is a difference of 2.0
Beryllium and Hydrogen have very similar electronegatvities <2.0