I understand that covalent bonds deal with non metal elements, and ionic bond metals and non metals. Is this the only difference? From my understanding, covalent bonds ‘share’ an electron, while ionic bonds form from one atom ‘steals’ an electron from another but the difference is for whatever reason eluding me.
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The functional difference is that atoms in ionic bonds can move around each other. Basically in an ionic bond an electron completely leaves one of the atoms and moves to the other. This can happen for a lot of reasons. So now you have a positively charged atom and a negatively charged atom. This difference in charge holds the atoms together (positive attracts negative).
However, in a covalent bond the atoms are held together in very specific positions, almost like a metal bar is holding them together. Ionic bonds are just held together, but not at any specific angle or position. They’re just generally pulled together.
This is why ionic compounds tend to dissolve a lot better. Because they can move a lot more freely in a solution.
So while non metal to metal forms ionic bonds a lot, you can actually get ionic bonds in other situations. For instance water is usually two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to an oxygen, but in water some small amount of it will ionize. One of those covalent bonds will become ionic. How much this happens is actually what we are measuring when we measure pH.
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