Compounds with the least covalent character

[annemarielawrence]

Can someone remind me what covalent character is and how we can find that? For example, would AgF or AgCl have more covalent character?

[claire smith]

Covalent character is the equal sharing of electrons, as opposed to ionic/polar character in which sharing is uneven. To determine covalent character of the example you gave, compare the electrongetaivities of the two species in each compound. Because F is more electronegative than Cl, it will pull electrons in the bond more tightly to itself. This means that the electrons will be more less equally shared and the bond will be more polar than the AgCl bond would be.

[Tyler_Kim_2G]

I still have to review this, but I think for these types of problems I normally referred to periodic trends. Chlorine is larger than fluorine because it has an extra shell, so its electronegativity is less. Because of this, the electronegativity difference of Ag and Cl is less than Ag and F. As the electronegativity difference gets larger there is less covalent character (greater than 2 is ionic).

[Daniel Tabibian 3K]

To determine covalent character, you would compare the difference in electronegativity. Since F is more electronegative than Cl and farther from Ag on the periodic table, the difference in electronegativity would be greater making it less covalent. Therefore, AgCl would have more covalent character.

[PatrickV]

Covalent character is if the electronegativity difference of the atoms is not too great. You can find electronegativity difference for each element online. If the electronegativity difference is more than 1.7 the bond will be ionic. If the electronegativity difference is less than 0.4 the bond will be covalent. An easy way if just comparing covalent character is to see how far apart the elements are on the periodic table because the farther apart they are, the greater the electronegativity difference, thus they have less covalent character.

[Marilyn]

I think F is the most electronegative element so it would be more ionic.