Polarizing Power

[Maria Roman 1A]

How can you tell when an atom has higher polarizing power? What does it mean in relation to polarizability?

[AnnaYan_1l]

This is what I have in the notes:
- All ionic bonds have some covalent character (this can be seen in Na+ and Cl-, because the anion's electrons are pulled into the bonding region, giving Na+ and Cl- some covalent character [in other words, the positive cation pulls electrons from negative anions toward the shared region between their nuclei])
- Highly distorted electrons are described as being highly polarized, which results in an ionic bond with more covalent character
- Cations which cause large distortions are described as having high polarizing power, which results in ionic bond with more covalent character

So, I believe that the cation with the high polarizing power is creating these large distortions and are thus making the anion highly polarized, if that makes sense!

[Daniel Cho Section 1H]

The main thing to understand about polarizing power and polarizability is that they are very dependent on the atomic or ionic radius or to put simply, dependent on size. For polarizing power, remember that it is always the smaller atom that would have the highest power because of its need to attract an electron which is related to its electronegativity. Polarizability is the same concept but to have higher polarizability is that it would have to be a very big size since a bigger size would most likely be distorted by the attracting cation.

Higher polarizing power= a smaller cation

Higher polarizability = a larger anion

I hope this helps. Please correct me if I am wrong in certain places.