How do we identify trends in physical properties Ionic Compounds - Lab Report Example

Ideally, the alkali metal or metals will donate an electron that will be added to the electron cloud of the halogen atom. At the molecular level, brittle crystals will form because the placement of ionic charges requires a precise positive/negative juxtapositioning. Physical deformation risks associating a positive with a positive and negative with a negative, generating repellant charges that cancel the bonding tendency, thus, the salt crystal shatters, whereas covalent bonds involving a more cooperative distribution of electrons are much more likely to withstand the same level of deformation.

On the other hand, the structure of an ionic lattice tends towards a far higher melting and boiling point than for covalent forms. The heightened charges allow for electrical conductive when melted, but those same charges also allow for solubility in water or other polar liquids, but not in nonpolar liquids such as most lipid-based oils. SOLUBILITY OF IONIC COMPOUNDS IN WATER BASED ON CHARGES PRESENT Ionic compounds, typically salts dissolve easily in aqueous solution. Solubility is the result of an attraction between negative, and positive charges among the ions present.

In simple sodium chloride the salt's positive ions (Na+) attract the partially-negative oxygens found in water. In addition, the salt's negative ions (Cl?) attract the partially-positive hydrogens in H2O. The Solubility constant (Ksp) and the common ion effect determine how much salt can potentially be dissolved within that solution. It is simply a matter of whether the ions in the water itself have a greater affinity for the ions in the compound than those ions do for each other. In general, the following rules provide a basis for predicting solubility: Ionic compounds with group 1A metal cations.

Nitrates are soluble regardless of the cation. In terms of how soluble a given compound is, based on the available data, it is reasonable to assume that size; more to the point, atomic radii is a decisive factor. Moving down an elemental series on the periodic table, the larger atomic numbers appear to be less soluble in water. This is due to the larger sizes of atoms involved, in which the available charge that might be available to the ions in water is more “insulated” by the larger distances involved.

Thus, with less charge within reach of either ion present in a molecule of water, the largest ions are less soluble. (Clark, 2002). Otherwise, the available data with the nine ions indicates an increase in conductivity as concentration throughout the solution increases. In terms of experimental design, graphs can be computed displaying the curve of each ion made as it increases in concentration and the accompanying increase in conductance. ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY BASED ON QUANTITY OF DISSOLVED IONS IN SOLUTIONS With an increase in the number of charged ions in an aqueous solution, electrical conductivity will certainly increase.

When ionic compounds break down, they will dissolve into both negatively and positively charged ions, which are of course attracted to the oppositely charged electric particle or current. Covalent compounds will dissociate into neutral ions which will not conduct electricity and should therefore have no consequence for aqueous electrical conductivity. Therefore, there is an inevitable correlation between electrical conductance and the actual quantity of ions present in the water. In terms of