Danestress Posted July 29, 2010 Share Posted July 29, 2010 A bit confused. Maybe someone can straighten me out here, but I hope my question will even make sense. I'm reading about ionic and covalent bonds. The book illustrated an ionic bond between chlorine and sodium and explained that the chlorine takes an electron from the sodium, and then the resulting positive/negative charge between them bonds them together into table salt. It then explains that with a covalent bond, the electron is shared, and that the bond can be polar or not depending on how much each atom actually gets the electron. So for two chlorine atoms (it says) the atoms will share the electron evenly, but for a chlorine and sodium atom, the chlorine will end up having the electron much longer, resulting in some polarity. And this is what confused me. I thought that the bond between that chlorine and sodium would be ionic - the chlorine would take off with that electron and never give it back. But then it said that this could be a covalent bond. Why would the same two atoms sometimes bond one way and something the other? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brilliant Posted July 29, 2010 Share Posted July 29, 2010 Hmm. Are you sure the book says a single chlorine atom and single sodium atom can have a covalent bond? I don't think that can be right. The general rule is that compounds of metals and nonmetals are usually ionic, especially for Group 1A and 2A metals. Sodium is a group 1A metal and chlorine is a nonmetal. A good example of a polar covalent bond is Chlorine and Hydrogen, which are both non-metals (two nonmetals generally form covalent bonds). The chlorine atom is highly electronegative. (Electronegativity increases from left to right across the periodic table). So it has a stronger pull on the shared electron. This makes the molecule polar - negative at the chlorine end, and positive at the hydrogen end. Do you have any other resources around that you can look at? I usually have to read about a chemistry topic from at least 2 different sources/textbooks to understand it at all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danestress Posted July 29, 2010 Author Share Posted July 29, 2010 I tried to call the publisher (It's the Rainbow Science by Beginnings Publishing) but no one answered and I am not even sure they provide support of that type. It just doesn't make sense to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brilliant Posted July 29, 2010 Share Posted July 29, 2010 I tried to call the publisher (It's the Rainbow Science by Beginnings Publishing) but no one answered and I am not even sure they provide support of that type. It just doesn't make sense to me. I would like to hear their answer; please post if they call you back. I think the textbook is wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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