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Bonding in TiCl4 ? Alevel chem

Is the type of bonding in TiCl4 ionic or covalent ?
And how you do you know ? I expected it to be ionic since it’s a metal bonded to a non metal but that’s gcse stuff and there’s probably a better explanation

Reply 1

hi_imcatherine

Its bonds are covalent. Titanium and chlorine have very similar electronegativity.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 2

CurrentlyAtLevel

Original post by hi_imcatherine

Its bonds are covalent. Titanium and chlorine have very similar electronegativity.

Right but how am I supposed to know that ?

Reply 3

Kian Stevens

Titanium is able to form dative covalent bonds with chloride ligands, due to vacant orbitals in titanium accepting the ligands' lone pairs
This process results in covalent bonds, not ionic bonds, being formed

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 4

hi_imcatherine

Original post by CurrentlyAtLevel

Right but how am I supposed to know that ?

You wouldn’t. I’m surprised this has been asked of you.

Reply 5

Kian Stevens

Original post by hi_imcatherine

You wouldn’t. I’m surprised this has been asked of you.

Obviously not at GCSE
But at A-level, knowing how complexes such as TiCl₄ are formed is required

Hello

Original post by Kian Stevens

Obviously not at GCSE
But at A-level, knowing how complexes such as TiCl₄ are formed is required

[ltr]The chloride isn’t acting as a ligand here .
and even if it was , how am I supposed to know when I wasn’t told anything about it ?
Heres the question [/ltr]

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Reply 8

Kian Stevens

Original post by CurrentlyAtLevel

[ltr]The chloride isn’t acting as a ligand here .
and even if it was , how am I supposed to know when I wasn’t told anything about it ?
Heres the question [/ltr]

A ligand is any molecule or ion which can donate a lone pair of electrons to a central metal atom via coordinate bonding
The chloride ions are doing exactly that in this case
TiCl₄ is a coordination complex where four chloride ligands have donated lone pairs of electrons to titanium's vacant orbitals, in order to form coordinate bonds...
Hence, chloride ions are acting as ligands in TiCl₄

How do you know this?
Well, transition metals usually do behave like this, as per their nature... It's just something you have to become aware of

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 9

CurrentlyAtLevel

Original post by Kian Stevens

A ligand is any molecule or ion which can donate a lone pair of electrons to a central metal atom via coordinate bonding
The chloride ions are doing exactly that in this case
TiCl₄ is a complex ion where four chloride ligands have donated lone pairs of electrons to titanium's vacant orbitals, in order to form coordinate bonds...
Hence, chloride ions are acting as ligands in TiCl₄

How do you know this?
Well, transition metals usually do behave like this, as per their nature... It's just something you have to become aware of

I don’t get it, I mean, I get what you said about a ligand & a TM behaving like this but I don’t get how we just assumed the Cl- would be ligands in this case
They could just as likely be anions based on what did I rule that out ?

Reply 10

Kian Stevens

Original post by CurrentlyAtLevel

Like I said, it's just something you have to become aware of

Transition metals in particular favour the formation of coordination complexes, where they coordinate bond to ligands, instead of the formation of ionic compounds

I feel as though you're just applying the general thought that metal cations form ionic bonds with non-metal anions... That's not the case for transition metals