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4: Ionic Bonding and Simple Ionic Compounds

  • Page ID
    387527
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    There are only 118 known chemical elements but tens of millions of known chemical compounds. Compounds can be very complex combinations of atoms, but many important compounds are fairly simple. Table salt, as we have seen, consists of only two elements: sodium and chlorine. Nevertheless, the compound has properties completely different from either elemental sodium (a chemically reactive metal) or elemental chlorine (a poisonous, green gas). We will see additional examples of such differences in this chapter and Chapter 4, as we consider how atoms combine to form compounds.

    • 4.1: Two Types of Bonding
      Atoms have a tendency to have eight electrons in their valence shell. The attraction of oppositely charged ions is what makes ionic bonds.
    • 4.2: Ions
      Ions can be positively charged or negatively charged. A Lewis diagram is used to show how electrons are transferred to make ions and ionic compounds.
    • 4.3: Formulas for Ionic Compounds
      Proper chemical formulas for ionic compounds balance the total positive charge with the total negative charge. Groups of atoms with an overall charge, called polyatomic ions, also exist.
    • 4.4: Ionic Nomenclature
      Each ionic compound has its own unique name that comes from the names of the ions.
    • 4.5: Chapter Summary
      To ensure that you understand the material in this chapter, you should review the meanings of the following bold terms and ask yourself how they relate to the topics in the chapter.


    4: Ionic Bonding and Simple Ionic Compounds is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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