How do you know if a compound is more covalent to least covalent and more ionic ?

How do you order compounds from the most to the least covalent and the most to the least ionic?

Oh I know what electronegativity means and what polar means but how would you order the compounds from most to least covalent and most to least ionic without the use of google

Oh I know what electronegativity means and what polar means but how would you order the compounds from most to least covalent and most to least ionic without the use of google

Alevel chemistry. So I have these ionic compounds KF Na2O Al2O3 CrBr
And then the covalent compounds are PH3 NO2 SiO2 and Br2
How would you know for each of the two groups of ionic and Covalent t compounds, how they’re ordered from strongest to weakest?

Your full understanding of the strength of electrostatic attraction between atoms and also electron sharing and polarity makes this an easy task to complete. KF is the most ionic!

But why? How do you order them? What do you look at? Do you add the electronegativities up? What do you do?

Please don't listen to those who are telling you how "easy" it should be. We all struggle with something; they're patronising you.

For instance, with potassium fluoride, find the e- neg values of both K and F.

Then subtract the higher e- neg value from the lower e- neg value. Since the differences are very high, the compound will be ionic. It's ionic b/c it e- neg differenced are so large that fluorine can remove potassium's outer e-.

here's an excerpt from this website:

" Ionic bonding is shown at the point where the two elements have the largest difference in electronegativity, as in CsF. Covalent bonding is shown where the elements have low or no difference in electronegativity but a high average electronegativity, as in F2. Metallic bonding is shown where the elements have low or no difference in electronegativity and a low average electronegativity, as in Cs. These relationships can be used to predict the type of bonding likely to be exhibited by any compound based on the elements involved."

https://chem.libretexts.org/Courses/Bellarmine_University/BU%3A_Chem_103_(Christianson)/Phase_3%3A_Atoms_and_Molecules_-_the_Underlying_Reality/9%3A_Chemical_Bonding/9.1%3A_The_Bonding_Spectrum

No one should be ridiculed for being confused.

I hope this has helped

Please don't listen to those who are telling you how "easy" it should be. We all struggle with something; they're patronising you.

For instance, with potassium fluoride, find the e- neg values of both K and F.

Then subtract the higher e- neg value from the lower e- neg value. Since the differences are very high, the compound will be ionic. It's ionic b/c it e- neg differenced are so large that fluorine can remove potassium's outer e-.

here's an excerpt from this website:

" Ionic bonding is shown at the point where the two elements have the largest difference in electronegativity, as in CsF. Covalent bonding is shown where the elements have low or no difference in electronegativity but a high average electronegativity, as in F2. Metallic bonding is shown where the elements have low or no difference in electronegativity and a low average electronegativity, as in Cs. These relationships can be used to predict the type of bonding likely to be exhibited by any compound based on the elements involved."

https://chem.libretexts.org/Courses/Bellarmine_University/BU%3A_Chem_103_(Christianson)/Phase_3%3A_Atoms_and_Molecules_-_the_Underlying_Reality/9%3A_Chemical_Bonding/9.1%3A_The_Bonding_Spectrum

No one should be ridiculed for being confused.

I hope this has helped

Hi again. For the ordering of the covalent compounds do you find the difference between electronegativities too?

Yes. The less the difference in electronegativity between 2 elements in a covalent compound, the stronger the covalent character/compound.

Ah thank you! But it’s the opposite for ionic compounds as the bigger the difference in electronegativities then the stronger the ionic bonding

Hi again. For the ordering of the covalent compounds do you find the difference between electronegativities too?

How do you order compounds from the most to the least covalent and the most to the least ionic?

Oh I know what electronegativity means and what polar means but how would you order the compounds from most to least covalent and most to least ionic without the use of google

That's not how it works. You can't bonds on how covalent or ionic they are. They either are or aren't depending on the compound. Like say you have a chemical reaction of Sodium+Chlorine----->Sodium Chloride it's obviously an alkali metal+a halogen so a ionic bond. The ionic bond formed is no more ionic than say Potassium Fluoride or Lithium Bromide. The same for covalent bonds a hydrogen molecule doesn't have a more covalent bond than Hydrogen Chloride or Methane or Water. They are all covalent bonds.