Ionic Character

[Brandon Gruender 3F]

How do you determine ionic/covalent character again?
There was a question on the midterm that I was stuck on.

[Lillian Ma 1I]

You can determine ionic/covalent character based on the difference in electronegativity. The larger the difference is, the more ionic it is, and the smaller the difference is, the more covalent it is.

[Sahiti Annadata 3D]

It is mostly determining by polarizability and polarizing power. Molecules with more covalent characters contain cations with a high charge and small atomic radius and anions with a large atomic radius. Molecules with more covalent character also tend to have a smaller electronegativity difference compared to ones with more of an ionic character.

[Gerardo Ortega 2F]

When determining covalent character in an ion, you want to focus on the polarizing power of the cation and the polarizability of the anion. The smaller, more positively charged a cation is, the more polarizing power it has. The larger an anion is, the more polarizable it is because the larger electron cloud can be more easily distorted by the cation. I hope this helps.

[Sandy Lin 1L]

Ionic character is determined by the partial charges that form between atoms that are bonded together; the more electronegative element will pull the electron towards itself making it slightly negative. This is ionic character because one atom is trying to take the electrons more and not wanting to share. For covalent character, you have to look at the polarizability of an anion (how easily its electron cloud can be distorted) and the polarizing power of the cation (how easily can it distort another atom's electron cloud). This shows covalent character because it seems as if the atoms are sharing the electrons even though it is an ionic bond.

[Brian_Wu_3B]

The larger the difference between electronegativity, the more ionic the bond will be. The less, the more covalent.

[sabrina ghalambor 2J]

more ionic vs more covalent character in a bond will relate to the polarizability/polarizing power of an atom, the size of an atom, and it's electronegativity. periodic trends are very important for this!

[Hasan Mirza 3F]

The difference in electronegativity. If the difference is >2, it is ionic, and if it is <1.5 the bond is covalent.

[Neel Sharma 3F]

One unique pattern I saw that also has backing in chemical principles was looking at the concepts of polarizability and polarizing power. The ideal combination for a bond with ample covalent character is between a large, polarizable anion and a small, highly charged cation. For ionic character look the opposite. A bond between a small anion and a large cation. These bonds will have ample ionic character. Hope this helps!

[Taha 2D]

its determined by the difference in electronegativity. generally if the difference is less than 0.5 then its non polar covalent, if its 0.5-2 then its covalent but with increasing ionic character, and if the difference is more than 2 then it can be considered ionic

[Hailey Qasawadish 2J]

You can determine ionic character by looking at electronegativity value differences. The higher the electronegativity difference, the more ionic the character is. Another way to tell is the most ionic are usually furthest apart on the periodic table.

[Armen_Isayan_2L]

Hello! In order to determine ionic and covalent character you must assess the difference between electronegativity, this is because if there is a large difference in electronegativity, it is likely the bon will be ionic. However, the less difference there is in electronegativity the more likely it will be a covalent bond.