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Ionic vs covalent bond: what's the difference?

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University Course Reader · STEM

Sodium chloride forms an ionic bond, while the water it dissolves in is held together by covalent bonds.

The reader highlighted one word in a textbook passage. Clicked broke down the chemistry term “ionic bond” into plain English:

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Overview

An ionic bond and a covalent bond are two of the main ways atoms hold together, and the difference is what happens to the outer electrons. In an ionic bond one atom gives an electron to the other: the giver becomes positively charged, the taker negatively charged, and the opposite charges attract. In a covalent bond each atom contributes an electron to a shared pair, and both hold on to that pair. Salt is ionic. Water is covalent.
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Overview

An ionic bond is one atom handing an electron to another: the atom that gave is now positively charged, the one that took is negatively charged, and those opposite charges hold them together. A covalent bond is two atoms each putting in one electron and sharing the pair, and neither lets go of it. Sodium hands chlorine an electron and you get salt. Two hydrogens and an oxygen share electrons and you get water. Two deals, two very different results. 😎

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Detail

An ionic bond and a covalent bond are two of the ways atoms join, and they differ in what the atoms do with their outer electrons. In an ionic bond one atom hands an electron to another. Sodium gives one to chlorine: sodium is now short an electron and positively charged, chlorine has one extra and is negatively charged, and the two charges attract. That attraction is the bond. It pulls in every direction, so each ion attracts all its neighbours and they stack into a repeating grid called a lattice. Salt is that lattice: a hard solid that melts at about 800 degrees Celsius. In a covalent bond neither atom lets go of any electrons. Each contributes one to a shared pair, both hold that pair, and the pair is the bond. Two hydrogens and an oxygen sharing electrons make one water molecule, and once the sharing is done the bonds are all used up inside it. Only weak attractions are left between one molecule and the next, so molecules slide past each other or drift apart, which is why many covalent substances are liquids or gases. The line between ionic and covalent is not sharp: atoms differ in how hard they pull on electrons, and when one atom holds the shared electrons closer, as oxygen does in water, the bond is called polar. Metal with metal is a third kind, metallic bonding.
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Detail

An ionic bond is one atom handing an electron to another: the atom that gave is now positively charged, the one that took is negatively charged, and the opposite charges hold the two together. A covalent bond is two atoms each putting one electron into a shared pair, and neither letting go of it. Who turns up mostly decides which you get. Sodium is far happier with one electron fewer and chlorine with one more, so the electron moves and salt is the result. Two non-metals both want electrons and neither will give any up, so they share, and water, oxygen and every plastic in your kitchen come from that arrangement. Ionic charges pull every which way, so every ion grips all of its neighbours, they lock into a crystal, and it takes about 800 degrees Celsius to melt salt. In a covalent molecule the bonds are all spent inside it: once each atom has its share there is nothing strong left to hold the next molecule, so molecules slip past one another or float off, and you get liquids and gases at room temperature. Sharing is rarely equal. When one atom pulls the shared pair closer than the other, the bond is called polar, part of the way to ionic. Water is one: the oxygen pulls the electrons closer than the hydrogens do. 😎

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Analogy

A covalent bond is two people sharing one umbrella, and an ionic bond is one of them handing the umbrella over. Under the shared umbrella both hold the handle, and holding the same thing is what keeps them together: two atoms, one pair of electrons. Hand the umbrella to a friend who has none and nothing is held jointly, but the giver now walks close beside the taker to stay dry. The hand-over left one person needing what the other has, and that need keeps them together. That is the ionic bond: one atom short an electron, one atom over, and the charge between them doing the pulling.
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Analogy

Ionic is a loan, covalent is a joint account. Lend a friend money and the two of you are bound: you want it back, so you stay close to them, and they still want more, so they stay close to you. That is sodium and chlorine, one electron down and one up, each drawn to the other by the imbalance between them. A joint account works differently: both of you put in, both of you hold the same pot, and neither can walk off with it. That is two atoms with one shared pair of electrons, and neither letting go of it. 😎
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Formal definition — The same term, explained the usual way

An ionic bond is a chemical bond formed by the transfer of one or more electrons from one atom to another, producing oppositely charged ions that are held together by electrostatic attraction; it typically forms between metals and non-metals and gives rise to crystalline lattices with high melting points. A covalent bond is a chemical bond formed when two atoms share one or more pairs of electrons, typically between non-metals, producing discrete molecules. The two are limiting cases of a continuum determined by the difference in electronegativity between the bonded atoms; bonds with unequal sharing are described as polar covalent.

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