BONDING AND STRUCTURE OF AN IONIC COMPOND

Ionic or electrovalent boning are chemical bonds created by electrostatic

forces of attraction between the positive cations and negative anions
An ionic bon is formed when electrons are transferred from a metal-
atom to a non- metal atom.
Sodium is a metal with one valence electron. It loses this electron to
form a positive charge, i.e. Na+.
Chloride is a non-metal with seven valence electrons. It gains one
electron to form a negative chloride ion which has a single negative
charge, i.e. CI- .
Every sodium atom that loses one electron there will need to be one
chloride atom to accept this electron.
Sodium chloride (NaCI) is one of the example of compounds with ionic
bonds. NaCI simply represents the ratio of Na+ ions to CI- ions in
sodium chloride, this is empirical formula. It is also called the formula
unit of sodium chloride.
Compounds like this consists of a giant (endlessly repeating) lattice of
ions. To be clear of the context giant, it doesn’t just mean very large. It
means that one cannot state exactly how many ions there are. There can
be billions of sodium ions and chloride ions packed together or trillions.
Each of these crystals is made up of millions of Na+ ions and millions of
CI- ion in a ratio of one Na+ ion to one CI- ion.
These ions are arranged in a very regular way they occur alternately in
rows and columns.
Each Na+ ion is bonded to six CI- ions and each CI- ions are bonded to
six Na+ ions by strong ionic bonds forming three dimensional
arrangement crystal lattice of particles.
PROPERTIES AND BONDING OF SODIUM CHLORIDE

The physical properties of sodium chloride are hard white cubic

crystals that are soluble in water, with a melting point of 801 degree
Celsius.
Hard and Brittle
The sodium and chloride ions are closely packed and held together by
strong electrostatic forces making the solid hard. When pressure is
applied to the crystal lattice, the ions layers move slightly with respect to
each other and ions with the same charges come to lie next to each other.
Repulsion occurs between the like charges and the lattice breaks apart,
i.e. it is brittle.
Soluble in water
When sodium chloride is added to water the ions can separate resulting
in sodium chloride being soluble in water. The partial positive ends of
the polar water molecules attract the negative chloride ions and the
partial negative ends attract the positive sodium ions.
This pulls the ions out of the lattice and the crystal dissolves. The ions
become surrounded by the water molecules and new forces of attraction
now exist between the ions and the water molecules.
High melting point-about 180 degree Celsius
The high melting point is due to the very strong electrostatic forces
between the positive sodium ions and the negative chloride ions. It takes
a lot of heat energy is needed to weaken these forces and separate the
ions from each other, allowing the solid to melt.
CHEMISTRY PROJECT: Structure and Bonding of
Sodium Chloride.

FORM 3A

ADRIAN RAMSOOK.