Bonding

Ionic Bonding
• Most elements form compounds.
• Sodium reacts with chlorine. When sodium is heated and placed in chlorine it
burns with a bright flame. The result is a white solid called sodium chloride.
• It is made up of sodium and chlorine atoms joined together. So it is a
compound.
• The reaction can be described like this: sodium +chlorine sodium
chloride.
• Noble gases do not usually form compounds.
• Noble gases are different from other elements because they have full outer
shells so they are stable or unreactive. So they don’t form compounds.
• A full outer shell makes an atom stable.
• Only noble gases have full outer shells; other elements don’t. This is why they
react.
• By reacting which each other atoms can obtain full outer shells and so
become stable.
• Atoms gain full outer shells by losing or gaining electrons, when they react
with other atoms.
• Losing electrons: Sodium has 1 electron in its outer shell. It is easier for the
sodium atom to lose that electron than to gain 7 more. That’s why it loses that
electron to another atom. The result is a sodium ion. The sodium ion has 11 p
and 10 e so it has a charge of +1. The symbol of a sodium ion is Na +.
• The outer shell for sodium disappears. The second last shell becomes the
outer shell and its full so the ion is stable.
• Gaining electrons: A chlorine atom has 7 electrons in its outer shell. Its easier
for the chlorine atom to gain 1 electron than to loose seven. So it gains 1
electrons from another atom. Now the outer shell is full so it’s stable.
• The symbol for an Cl ion is Cl- because it has 1 more electron than protons; it
becomes a negative ion.
• Ions are charged particles. It is charged because it contains unequal number
of protons and electrons. So an atom that loses or gains an electron is an ion.
• Metals lose electron to become a positive ion.
• Nonmetals gain electrons to become a negative ion.

• Since sodium wants to lose one electron and chlorine wants to gain one, they
can react together. Then the two ions are formed.
• The two ions have opposite charges so they attract each other. The force of
attraction is strong and it is called the ionic bond or electrovalent bond,.
• The force of attraction between two oppositely charged ions is called the ionic
bond or the electrocovalent bond.
• When sodium reacts with chlorine billions of sodium and chloride ions are
made and are attracted to each other.
• The pattern grows until a giant structure of ions is formed. It has equal
numbers of Na ions and Cl ions. So the compound has no charge.
• Compounds that are made from ions are called ionic compounds.
• Metals react with non-metal to form ionic compounds.
• The same happen with magnesium and oxygen.
• Mg burns fiercely in O. Mg loses two electrons to O. Then ions are formed
and they are attracted to each other. They cluster together so that each ion is
surrounded by 6 of the opposite charge.
• With Mg and Cl. It is slightly different. Mg needs to get rid of 2 electrons to
become stable. But chlorine only wants 1 electron to gain a full outer shell. So
one Mg atom reacts with two Cl atoms. The result forms more ions. They
cluster together so that each ion is surrounded by 6 of the opposite charge.

Covalent Bonding

• When two non metals react with each other, they both want to gain
electrons to get a full outer shell. The only way they can do this is by
sharing electrons. Atoms can only share electrons in the outer shell.
• A hydrogen atom has only one electron in its outer shell. Its outer shell can
hold two. So it is not full. When two hydrogen atoms get close together,
their outer shells overlap and they can share electrons. Because they
share electrons there is a strong force of attraction between them. This
strong attraction is called the covalent bond. The bonded atoms form a
molecule.
• A molecule is a small group of atoms that are bonded together by a
covalent bond.
• Hydrogen gas is made up of molecules and for this reason it is called a
molecular substance. Hydrogen gas is also called diatomic because there
are two atoms in each molecule. Its formula is H2. There are several other
molecular substances.
• Chlorine C2, Iodine I2 oxygen O2, nitrogen N2, Sulphur S8, phosphorus
P4.

• Chlorine has 7 electrons in its outer shell. It needs to gain one electron to
gain a full outer shell. When two atoms come close together their outer
shells over lap and they share one electron each so that they have full
outer shells.

• Oxygen has six electrons in its outer shell. It need to gain 2 electrons to
obtain a full outer shell. When two atoms come close together their outer
shell overlaps. Then they share two electrons each so that they have full
outer shells. Since oxygen share 2 electron each the bond between
oxygen atoms is called a double covalent bond or just a double bond.
• Huge number molecules exist as compounds. In a molecular compound
atoms of different share electrons to gain full outer shells. These
compounds are also called covalent compounds because of the covalent
compounds in them

• Water the formula for water is H2O. In each molecule a oxygen molecule
shares electrons with 2 hydrogen atoms. One electron with each h atom.

• Ammonia. The formula for ammonia is NH3. Each nitrogen atom shares
electrons with 3 hydrogen atoms.

• Methane. Its formula is ch4. Each carbon atom shares electrons with four
hydrogen atoms.

• If the particles in a solid are ionic, they are called ionic solids. If the
particles are molecular, the solid is called molecular or covalent solids.
• Sodium chloride is made of millions of sodium and chloride ions. They are
arranged in a regular pattern called a lattice. They are held together by
strong ionic bonds. The pattern repeats its self millions of times. The result
is a piece of solid with straight edges and faces called a crystal.

• Sodium chloride is a typical ionic solid. In all ionic solids, the ions are
packed in a regular pattern and held together by strong ionic bonds. This
means all ionic solids are crystalline. Which means they are all arranged
in regular pattern.

• Ionic solids have these properties. They have high melting and boiling
points. This is because the it takes a lot of heat energy to overcome the
strong ionic bonds and to break up the lattice and become a liquid. They
are usually soluble in water. They are insoluble in tetra chloromethane and
petrol. They can’t conduct electricity even when they are solids. Electricity
is stream of moving charges. Although the ions are charged, they can
move because of the strong ionic bonds holding together. They ca conduct
electricity when they are dissolved or molten because the ions are then
allowed to move.

• Iodine is a molecular or covalent solid. The molecules are packed in a

regular pattern and held together by weak bonds. The pattern repeats
millions of times and the result is a crystal.
• Iodine is a typical molecular solid. In all molecular solids. The molecules
are in a regular pattern but are held together by weak forces. This means
that they are crystalline.
• They have the following properties. They have low melting and boiling
points. Much lower than that of ionic solids because it doesn’t take so
much heat energy to break up the weak forces that hold them together.
Infact many molecular solids melt and boil below room temperature.
Unlike ionic solids they are not soluble in water but are soluble in tetra
chloromethane. They do not conduct electricity even molten because
molecules are not charged particles.