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Bond Angles

Im very confused to why MgCl2 is a bent shape and not linear. So how would you draw this molecule with the bond angle?I understand that it is polar but then how would I draw the shape in a way to indicate this? Thanks
Surely it's ionic?
it's linear
Original post by king axolotl
Surely it's ionic?

That is what I was thinking, it will show some covalent character, but it is mostly an ionic compound, so forms a giant ionic lattice.

If it were purely covalent, it would be linear, but it isn't, so it's not.
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Pigster
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Original post by aaaaaaa18
Im very confused to why MgCl2 is a bent shape and not linear. So how would you draw this molecule with the bond angle?I understand that it is polar but then how would I draw the shape in a way to indicate this? Thanks

Why do you think it would be bent? Who said so?
Original post by Pigster
Why do you think it would be bent? Who said so?

To be fair, if you search for its shape, this comes up:
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Magnesium-chloride
which does show an image which would suggest that it is bent, although it isnt
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aaaaaaa18
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Original post by Pigster
Why do you think it would be bent? Who said so?


I was doing some electronegativity questions and it said that only cl2 was non polar and obviously mgcl2 will be polar but then I thought it would have a linear shape which would not make sense. However I searched online and the first thing that came up said that it has a bent shape but from what lone pair? How do you draw ionic bond angles then?
Original post by aaaaaaa18
I was doing some electronegativity questions and it said that only cl2 was non polar and obviously mgcl2 will be polar but then I thought it would have a linear shape which would not make sense. However I searched online and the first thing that came up said that it has a bent shape but from what lone pair? How do you draw ionic bond angles then?

Can you post the question? This is A-level chemistry right? I'm confused to why they are asking about the shapes of ionic bonds.
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aaaaaaa18
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Original post by Sharmarko
Can you post the question? This is A-level chemistry right? I'm confused to why they are asking about the shapes of ionic bonds.

So it isn’t explicitly asking for me to draw the shape but for my own understanding I drew mgcl2 as a linear bond but other sources have said that it is a bent shape which would explain why it is obviously polar but where does the bent shape come from?
7B268F6B-5203-4D34-B44D-70A83B26DF6B.png156.4KB
the polar covalent bonds refer to PCL3 or SCl2, as Cl2 is non polar (no difference in electronegativity) and the others are ionic

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