Ionic/Covalent

[Cassidy Kohlenberger 3D]

How is it possible for ionic compounds to have covalent properties? I know it's possible, but I don't know how to explain the concept in a way that makes sense.

[BNgo_2L]

Ionic bonds have covalent properties because the electrons of the anion enter the bonding region between the cation and anion as the cation polarize the anion.

[Louise Lin 2B]

Ionic bonds have covalent properties that depend on the polarizability of the anion and the cation's polarizing power. Ionic bonds have more covalent character when the anion is more polarizable or when the cation has high polarizing power.

[kpang_4H]

I think the idea is that bonds are not binary. For example, like gender, bonds lie on a spectrum of ionic and covalent character. Therefore, they are not always equally sharing (covalent) or completely giving up electrons (ionic), so they have some characteristics of both.

[Ally Huang- 1F]

When ionic bonds form, an electron cloud forms between the two atoms. When opposite charged atoms approach each other, the attraction and repulsion of opposite and alike charges leads to polarization in the anion. A large amount of polarization increases the covalent character, while less polarization has a smaller amount of covalent character.

[Abby Soriano 1J]

The cations in ionic compounds have a certain polarizing power: their positive charge makes them pull on the electrons of neighboring anions (that we describe as being polarizable to a certain extent). Because of this, there's a distortion in the electron cloud of the anion, making it so that there is some covalent character (electrons being pulled between two ions rather than electrons being just strictly transferred).

[Robert Tran 1B]

An ionic compound has at least two atoms. Even in the atom that donated an electron, the nucleus still exerts a small attractive force on the electrons of the other atom(s). This causes them to be pulled slightly in one direction, which means they are slightly covalent.