Is ionic or covalent stronger?

[Julia Mazzucato 4D]

I've found conflicting answers on the internet so I wanted to ask here. I was always taught throughout high school that covalent bonds are stronger than ionic bonds. But I came across a question in the textbook asking which of two substances would have a higher boiling point and I know that it has to be the one with the stronger bond. One of them is covalent HCl and the other is ionic NaCl. I googled which was stronger and I found some people saying ionic is stronger and some people saying covalent is stronger. And now i'm just confused.

[Jessica Castellanos]

I always heard that ionic bonds are stronger, ion-ion bonds are stronger than ion-dipole, dipole-dipole, H bonds, London dispersion forces, and dipole-induced dipole as well.

[jisulee1C]

It depends on the situation. In biology you hear that covalent bonds are stronger because you are usually comparing covalent bonds with ionic bonds in water. When ionic bonds are in water they are much weaker. However, in chemistry you usually say that ionic bonds are stronger because they are harder and take more energy to break than covalent bonds when they are not dissolved in a solution.

[Cynthia Gong 1L]

ionic bonds are stronger because the molecules will form a tightly knit crystal lattice structure that is extremely strong.

[Mai V 4L]

ionic bonds are stronger because the molecules will form a tightly knit crystal lattice structure that is extremely strong.

so then should we always assume that salts are stronger than covalent bonds? does that change when they are in aq solution?

[Nan_Guan_1L]

throughout ap chem I was taught ionic bonds are stronger than covalent bond in most cases. In response to the previous comment about nacl in aq form, when dissolved, the ionic bonds in nacl were broken, so I don't think it's comparable in that way.

[Kaiya_PT_1H]

Last year in LS 7A, Dr. Maloy said that generally in life science, covalent bonds are considered to be stronger because chemical reactions occur almost entirely in aqueous solutions (the molecules with ionic bonds would be separated into ions). However I think in terms of just heating up a substance (per the original post), a molecule with an ionic bond would be stronger and therefore have a higher boiling point.

[ShinwooKim_3E]

I think generally covalent bonds are stronger. Take salt and water for example, NaCl, an ionic compound, dissolves in H2O, a covalent compound. You can infer that the ionic bonds in NaCl were weak enough to break in an aqueous solution.

[Morgan Gee 3B]

In regards to chemistry, ionic bonds tend to be stronger than covalent bonds. In biology, covalent bonds tend to be stronger than ionic bonds because biologists consider ionic bonds in solution. If ionic bonds are in solution, they are weaker than ionic bonds not in solution.

[Joey_Okumura_1E]

In a chemistry setting, ionic bonds are stronger due to Coulombic attraction. However, in a biology setting, covalent bonds are stronger. (Biologists think about the relative strength of bonds when present in a solution. Ionic bonds are easily broken in a solution because they form hydrogen bonds with the water molecules.)

[Adrienne Yuh 2B]

In terms of chemistry, ionic bonds are stronger than covalent bonds!

[Eric Tam 2D]

From reading the posts, the consensus seems to be that ionic bonds are usually stronger than covalent bonds. Are there examples of special cases where covalent bonds are stronger than ionic bonds? Also, why are some compounds represented as an aqueous solution in some chemical equations, and why does it matter?

[Bai Rong Lin 2K]

I've found conflicting answers on the internet so I wanted to ask here. I was always taught throughout high school that covalent bonds are stronger than ionic bonds. But I came across a question in the textbook asking which of two substances would have a higher boiling point and I know that it has to be the one with the stronger bond. One of them is covalent HCl and the other is ionic NaCl. I googled which was stronger and I found some people saying ionic is stronger and some people saying covalent is stronger. And now i'm just confused.

I was always taught that the Ionic bond is stronger compared to covalent, but recently I learned something about how the difference in the environment of the bond plays a factor as well.

[Shana Patel 1C]

It depends on the situation. Covalent bonds are formed from the sharing of electrons between nuclei and, ionic bonds are formed from mutual attractions between oppositely charged ions. Ionic bonds tend to be stronger than covalent bonds. In high school, I was taught that ionic bonds are the strongest, followed by covalent, and finally London forces.

[joshtully]

Ionic bonds are stronger than covalent bonds. This is due to coulombic attraction.

[Muskaan Abdul-Sattar]

Ionic is stronger according to my understanding!

[isha dis3d]

Ionic bonds are stronger than covalent bonds because the electronegativity difference between the two elements is much greater than that of two elements in a covalent bond. In a covalent bond electrons are shared between the two elements and will often favor one element over the other depending on polarity.

[David Chibukhchian 2G]

I was also confused about this. I think ionic bonds are stronger, especially as the electronegativity difference between two bonded atoms increases and as the ionic character of the bond increases. Since increased ionic character means the bond is less covalent, it would mean that ionic is stronger. This is my understanding, I hope that helps!

[Lauren Strickland 1B]

I believe ionic bonds are usually stronger than covalent bonds.

[Sophia Kalanski 1A]

ionic bonds are usually stronger because they are causing a transfer in electrons rather than a quick sharing of them. Covalent bonds are created by electronegativity and tend to be weaker

[Shruti Kulkarni 2I]

I have always been told ionic bonds are the strongest, then covalent bonds, then London forces. I would assume that ionic would be the strongest because the atoms actually give up or gain electrons, they don't share them as is the case with covalent bonds.

[SophiaNguyen_2L]

I think ionic bonds are stronger because there's a stronger attraction between the oppositely charged atoms. And I think since covalent bonds are just atoms sharing electron pairs, it'd take less energy to break apart covalent bonds.

[Anirudh Mahadev 1G]

I've heard ionic bonds are stronger, but certain types of covalent bonds may be stronger than an ionic bond. For example, the triple bond between two nitrogen atoms is extremely strong and takes about 900 kJ/mol to break.

[David Y]

I think it depends on the situation, but I have heard ionic are stronger

[Chinyere Okeke 2J]

I think it depends on the surroundings of the molecules. I know in aqueous solutions covalent bonds are usually stronger than ionic and in biology most of the molecules looked at are in aqueous solution. However, in chemistry I was also taught ionic bonds are generally stronger because the coulombic opposite charges of the ions have an attraction.

[Sukhkiran Kaur 3I]

In terms of chem, I believe it would be ionic bonds.

[Sameer Chowdhury 3C]

I believe in order of strength at the molecular level it goes, from strongest to weakest: ionic, covalent, polar, Van der Waals forces.

[Jerry_T]

Ionic bonds are stronger than covalent bonds because their difference in electronegativity is greater than that of covalent bonds.

[David Liu 1E]

I'm pretty sure ionic bonds are stronger for this class, but as comments above have said, it seems that covalent bonds are stronger for chemistry

[Ethan Goode 2H]

Ionic bonds are typically stronger than covalent bonds; however, ionic bonds in water are weaker that covalent bonds due to the water molecules messing with the bonds.

[Gustavo_Chavez_1K]

I honestly have found conflicting answers on this question too. From what I remember learning, I think that covalent bonds are generally the strongest. But ionic bonds may be stronger depending on the maximization of the attraction between ions of opposite charges.

[Morgan Gee 3B]

Ionic bonds tend to be stronger than covalent bonds as solids but weaker than covalent bonds when in solution. In chemistry, ionics bonds are usually considered stronger as we work with ionic bonds in the solid state more often while in biology, ionic bonds are considered weaker as molecules tend to be in solution.