Ionic and covalent Bonding - Essay Example

Ionic and covalent bonding Atoms are the basic units of chemicals but often exist in unstable In order to gain stability, atoms combine with other atoms, either of the same element or of a different element, in a bonding process. Different types of bonds exist and ionic and covalent bonds, which this paper discusses, are examples. Definitions of the termsIonic bonding defines cohesive forces between atoms of different chemical elements because of ions of opposite charged that attract one another.

The bonding forms between two elements such that atoms in one of the elements lose electrons from its structure while and atoms of the other element gain the lost electrons into their structure. The element that loses electrons forms cations while the element that gains electrons forms anions and the opposite charges form the ions to constitute the bonding (Saha 2010, p. 4). Covalent bonding however defines attractive forces between atoms through sharing of electrons. Each atom in the bond is unstable but is requires high energy to either gain or lose electrons and therefore shares electrons with a nearby atom.

Covalent bonding may occur between atoms of the same element or atoms of different elements. The shared electrons forms part of the energy levels of both of the atoms and the attraction to each of the atom’s nuclei forms the bonding (Khanna, Verma and Kapila n.d., p. 230). Bonding mechanismsIonic bonding works through attraction between the formed ions. The bond between sodium and chlorine to form sodium chloride illustrates this. Sodium atoms lose electrons from their outer most energy levels and therefore form ions with positive charges, sodium ions.

Chlorine atoms gain the lost electrons into their outer most energy levels to form chloride ions with negative charges. The sodium and chloride ions then attract each other to form sodium chloride compound under ionic bond. The bond between chlorine atoms in a chlorine molecule however illustrates covalent bonding. Since the two atoms have high and equal affinity for an electron, they donate an electron each, that they share in the outer most energy level to attain stability (Saha 2010, p. 4; Khanna, Verma and Kapila n.d., p. 230). SimilaritiesThe main similarity between covalent and ionic bonding is the resultant bond that is created between atoms.

Both ionic and covalent bonds also identify transfer of electrons across atoms towards formation of bonds (Vandermeer 2011, p. 157).DifferencesDespite the similarities between the two types of bonds, they have many differences. The first difference is in the transfer of electrons in the elements’ energy levels. In ionic bonding, there is complete transfer of electrons from an atom of one element to an atom of another element. The transfer is only partial in covalent bonding because the donor still holds the atom.

The chemical units in the types of bonds are also different. The units are ions in ionic bonds and atoms in covalent bonds. Another significant difference is the type of elements that can form the bonds. Ionic bond can only occur between metals and non-metals such as sodium and chlorine while covalent bonds occur between non-metals such as chlorine and chlorine atoms or chlorine and nitrogen atoms (Vandermeer 2011, p. 157). Reference listKhanna, S Verma, N and Kapila, B n.d., MCQ’s in chemistry, Golden Bells, New Delhi.

Saha, G 2010, Fundamentals of nuclear pharmacy, Springer, New York. Vandermeer, J 2011, The ecology of agroecosystems, Jones & Bartlett Learning, Sudbury.