Polar vs nonpolar vs ionic

[JasonNovik3A]

What is the difference between these 3 and how do I identify it? A little confused ...

[Tatiana Hage 2E]

The formation of an ionic bond is the result of the transfer of one or more electrons from a metal onto a non-metal. Polar bonding is the unequal sharing of electrons between two different non-metal atoms. Nonpolar covalent bonds, with equal sharing of the bond electrons, arise when the electronegativities of the two atoms are equal.

[Laura Riccardelli]

Is a N2 molecule covalent?

[Leanne Wong 1H]

yes, it's covalent because the electronegativity difference is literally 0, where its considered nonpolar.

[Kevin Morden 1E]

What is the difference between these 3 and how do I identify it? A little confused ...

I like to think of ionic bonds as those with atoms on opposite sides of the periodic table.

[Girija_3E]

Is a N2 molecule covalent?

You can also think of it as: since the same atom is bonded to itself, their electronegativities are the same, and they both share the electrons equally.

[Chem_Mod]

Lots of good chemistry here.
:-)

[DAllaf]

Hi Jason,

The difference in electronegativity is our best tool to guess what type of bond the elements will form. An ionic bond is when there is a transfer of one or more electrons from a metal onto a non-metal. The general rule of thumb is that if the difference in electronegativity is greater than 2, then it is ionic. A covalent bond is the sharing of electrons, nonpolar is equal sharing and polar is unequal sharing. If it is less than 1.5, then it is covalent. The area between 1.5 and 2 is a bit of a gray area, but memorization isn't needed for this class. Electronegativity increases as you go to the right and up on the periodic table.

Hope this helps!

[Curtis Wong 2D]

The polar and nonpolar is a little bit confusing to understand. Essentially, it is based on the partial charges of the compound. Based on the reading of Chapter 3, we understand that all molecules can be seen as resonance hybrids between their purely covalent bonds and purely ionic bonds. You can easily figure out a bond is ionic based on the difference in electronegativity. However, for understanding polar and nonpolar, we have to take a look at the partial charges that can exist due to unequal contributions from the ionic compounds in a resonance hybrid. Thus, if one atom has a partial positive charge and the other has a partial negative charge equal in value, then it is a polar covalent bond.

Which is really hard to figure out when given little info. Just know that "the bonds between same-element diatomic molecules and ions are nonpolar," while bonds between atoms of different atoms are polar to some extent.

(Page 90 from textbook)

[Krupa Prajapati]

Hi Jason. Another rule of thumb is if the electronegativity difference between the two atoms is less than 0.5, than generally we assume the molecule is nonpolar. If the difference is greater than 0.5 but less than 1.5, we can assume the molecule is polar. Hope this helps!

[Jennie Fox 1D]

Another thing to note for polarity is in regard to the dipole moments. If the dipole moments are equal and cancel each other out, the molecule is non polar; however, if the dipole moments do not cancel each other out, the molecule is polar.

[Clarissa Molina 1D]

How can we tell if the dipole moments cancel out or not? I am still a little confused about that concept.