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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Well, it’s to do with the orbitals. An orbital is where an electron probably is. It’s a quantum object so it doesn’t actually be in a place the way we’re used to it, but the orbital is where it’s likeliest to be found. When an electron moves to a different atom, its orbital is now entirely around the new ion. In a covalent bond, the orbital stays on the same atom, but gets skewed towards the second atom.
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