Polarizing Power [ENDORSED]

[Danieljm1B]

What does it mean when electrons have a high polarizing power?

[Sisi Li 1F]

Polarizing power is how much a cation distorts a polarizable anion. The charge of the cation causes the electron cloud of the anion to distort as it's attracted to the cation. At first, Lavelle made a distinction between covalent and ionic bonds because covalent bonds creates compounds whereas ionic bonds only create ions, but due to polarizing power, all ionic bonds actually possess some covalent characteristics.

[Yilun Ding]

Polarizing power is determined by the strength which a cation distorts the electron clould in the anion, and with greater polarizing power, that ionic compound would have more covalent characteristics.

[David Zhang 1B]

The polarizing power of a cation allows it to distort the electron field of the cation since the negative charge of the electrons is attracted to the positive charge on the cation.

[Daniel Kim 1D]

Polarizing power is how well a cation can distort the electron density/cloud of a polarizable anion.

[somyapanchal1D]

Polarizability is defined as the ability for a cation to distort an anion. As the atomic radius of an atom increases, the polarizing power decreases. As the atomic radius of an atom decreases, the polarizing power increases. Also, the greater the charge on an atom, the higher the polarizing power.

[Radha Patel 4I]

High Polarizing Power: Smaller cations that have higher positive charges, cations with the same radius, the higher the charge is
Li+ is the highest of polarizing power among alkali metal ions

[MedhaVallurupalli1F]

Simply, something that has a high polarizing power, has a greater ability to pull the electron density of another atom/molecule towards it.

[Yen Ho Chou 1D]

it means the atom will pull electrons more easily