Covalent Character

[KMcFarland_2L]

In the lecture, it is said that all ionic bonds have some covalent character. The example demonstrates electrons being pulled into a shared region. Will every ionic bond show this covalent character, or are there other characteristics an ionic bond can display that would also be considered covalent character?

[BaileyB1F]

This response does not fully answer your question, but I found this website that describes the covalent and ionic bond relationship and a bit on polarity that might help.
https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves ... _Chemistry)/Fundamentals/Ionic_and_Covalent_Bonds

[Marisa Gaitan 2D]

All ionic bonds have some covalent character because the there will be some positive charge and some negative charge in the salt. So, the electrons in the negatively charged region (anion) will be attracted to the positive charged cation. What I pulled from the lecture is that all ionic bonds have to have at least some covalent character because of the oppositely charged regions. However most, though not all, covalent bonds have ionic character. For example, an H-H bond shares electrons equally.

[Kyle Walsh 2J]

Hi! So the main differences between ionic and covalent bonds include the sharing of electrons, ionic bonds being electrostatic in nature due to charge differences, and solubility. I'm not sure we can entirely answer this until we get deeper into this topic, but yes, I would assume that since electrons are being pulled into a shared region for certain ionic compounds, that this would make them less electrostatic because the charges aren't as far apart (which is a characteristic of covalent bonds), and less soluble because the shared electrons would be harder to break up (which is another characteristic of covalent bonds). Basically since each characteristic depends on the others, when one is considered slightly covalent, they should all be considered slightly covalent. Hope this helps!

[Nhu Pham-Dis3G]

In the lecture the professor said that ALL ionic bonds have some covalent character. For instance as you can see in the NaCl bond, the anions electron get pulled into the bonding region, therefore NaCl will exhibit some covalent bond characteristics.