Summary of Chemistry Textbook Section 2.

1: Ionic Bonding
- Element a substance made up of atoms that are all the same type
- Majority of the 92 naturally occurring elements are metals on the left-hand side, middle
and lower sections of the periodic table.
- Metals shiny, high melting and boiling points, generally good conductors of heat and
electricity, tend to have low numbers of electrons (usually one or two) in valence electron
shell and therefore tend to lose these electrons to gain an outer-shell octet of electrons
- Non-metals found on the right-hand side of the periodic table, generally poor conductors
of heat and electricity, low melting points, several are gases at room temperature, high
numbers of electrons in their valence shells and will readily accept further electrons in order
to reach the desired outcome of eight outer-shell electrons
- Formation of the two ions represented diagrammatically
- Diagram clearly shows the transfer of one electron from the metal to the non-metal
- Ionic bonding involves the formation of many ions that are then held together by
electrostatic attraction in a continuous lattice of positive and negative ions
- Ionic compounds formed by any combination of positive and negative ions
- In an ionic lattice a positive ion will always be surrounding by negative ions, and a negative
ion will always be surrounded by positive ions
- Exact configuration varies depending on the relative sizes of the ions involved
- Metal atoms in groups 1, 2 and 3 will lose electrons to form ions with a 1+, 2+ and 3+ charge
respectively
- Elements in groups 5, 6 and 7 will gain electrons to from ions with a 3, 2 and 1 charge
respectively
- Transition metals also lose electrons when forming ionic compounds; however, their more
complex electron arrangement means that they can generally form more than one type of
ion
Naming and writing formulas for ionic compounds
- Simple ions are made up of single atoms that have lost or gained valence electrons to
achieve a full valence shell
- Some ions are more complex; they are a combination of several atoms with an overall
charge polyatomic ions
- Polyatomic ions are usually made up of non-metal atoms, although a few include metal
atoms e.g. SO
4
2-
, CO
3
2-

- Ionic formulas are made up of positive and negative ions therefore total positive charge will
always equal the total negative charge because, overall, a compound is neutral
- Ionic formulas are written as empirical formulas an empirical formula is the lowest whole
number ratio of the atoms in a compound
- To name and write a balanced formula for a particular ionic compound, the following
conventions are used
When naming an ionic compound, the positive ion is generally written first, followed
by the negative ion
Compounds do not generally carry an overall charge, it is necessary to balance the
charges of the anion and cation components
If more than one of each ion is required to balance the overall charge, a subscript is
used to indicate the number of each species required
In the case of some polyatomic ions, it may be necessary to use brackets to ensure
no ambiguity is present.
For metals that are able to form ions of different charges, Roman numerals are used
to indicate the relevant charge on the ion
Name of the ion depends on its composition
Name of the ion often gives a clear indication of the atoms present
The structure of ionic compounds
- Ionic compounds arrange themselves into a regular pattern, a lattice structure (an ionic
lattice), containing many millions of ions that extend in all three dimensions
- No fixed number of ions is involved, but the ratio of cations to anions is constant for a given
compound and is shown in the empirical formula
- Most stable arrangement of ions for any particular ionic compound will be the one in which
the positively charged ions are packed as closely as possible to the negatively charged ions,
and the ions with the same charge are as far apart as possible
- This arrangement serves to maximise the electrostatic attraction between the positive and
negative ions and minimise the repulsion between like charged ions, thus lowering the
overall chemical potential energy of the lattice
- There are a number of different ion arrangements that can be generated to meet these
criteria, depending on the relative sizes of the ions present and their ratio in the compound.
- Each arrangement will result in the particular lattice structure found for that compound
SECTION 2.1 EXERCISES
1. State balanced chemical formulas for each of the following compounds.
a) Potassium nitrate: KNO
3

b) Calcium chloride: CaCl
2

c) Sodium hydroxide: NaOH
d) Copper(II) sulfate: Cu
2
(SO
4
)
2

e) Ammonium sulfide: (NH
4
)
2
S
f) Aluminium nitrate: Al(NO
3
)
3

2. State the names of the following compounds.
a) KCl Potassium chloride
b) BaSO
4
Barium sulfate
c) HNO
3
Hydrogen nitrate
d) Al
2
O
3
Aluminium oxide
e) SnI
2
Tin iodide
f) Cu
3
(PO
4
)
2
Copper phosphate
3. Determine the charge on the positive ion (cation) for each of the following compounds.
a) Mn(SO
4
)
2
2+
b) Co(OH)
3
3+
c) NiCO
3
2+
d) Pt(NO
3
)
2
2+
e) AuBr
3
3+
f) Ga
2
(OH)
2
2+
4. Determine the charge on the negative ion (anion) for each of the following compunds.
a) KBrO
3
1-
b) Na
2
SiO
3
2-
c) NH
4
AsO
2
4-
d) Ag
2
SeO
3
2-
e) LiTeO
4
1-
f) AlIrCl
6
1-