dkenrgyfrk - 28-12-2011 at 12:27
The book I'm reading is just showing two fictitious elements
Q and Y
I hope that shows up right.
How am I to know whether it is a covalent or ionic bond just from the dot notation? If these were two real elements I know I would look at the
periodic table to see if the elements are either metal-nonmetal or non-metal/non-metal which would tell me ionic or covalent.
But since I can't look up these two fictitious elements, how else am I expected to guess by just the dot notation?
Is it because one side isn't in brackets? Q[Y] = ionic
Thanks in advance.
kavu - 28-12-2011 at 13:37
Though the Bohr model is not sufficent to explain the whole chemistry business, it is enough to work out this problem. The dots represent the "outer
shell electrons", element Q has one and element Y has seven. If you look at the periodic table (showing the outer shell electrons) you can deduce in
which groups elements Q and Y belong to. This should help you in the right direction.
Difference between covalent/ionic bond isn't as black and white as school chemistry presents it. Some books describe bonds ionic if the Pauling
electronegativity difference of the elements is over 2,0. This poses some problems, for example AgI would be covalent! Bonds are always somewhere
inbetween ionic and covalent, to sufficiently describe the determining interactions MO-theory is needed.
[Edited on 28-12-2011 by kavu]
dkenrgyfrk - 17-1-2012 at 20:22
Thank you for your reply.