IGCSE Double Award Extended Coordinated Science

Chemistry 3.4 - Ions and Ionic Bonds

Ions

You need to know​ what ions are and how they can be formed.

An ​ion​ is a ​charged atom, or a molecule

- Caused by loss or gain of electrons
- This causes the ​proton number ≠ electron number

An ion is formed so that atoms will lose or gain electrons to ​form a full valence shell​ (full outer shell)
- Full valence shell provides stability to the atom, so this is why they do it.

There are two types of ions, a ​cation​ and an a

​ nion​.

- Cation​, pronounced cat-ion

- Is a positively charged ion, formed by loss of electrons

- Anion​, pronounced ann-ion

- Is a negatively charged ion, formed by gain of electrons

- Remember: ​cat​s are awesome, so they are positive.

- So a ​cat​ion is positive.

For example, take the sodium atom’s formation of sodium ion (cation).

- Sodium atom has 1 electron in its 3rd shell.

- It can either:
- Gain 7 electrons to form a full 3rd valence shell or
- Lose 1 electron to form a full 2nd valence shell​ (there are no electrons in the 3rd shell)
- Losing one electron is easier than gaining 7 electrons, so the sodium atom does just that.

- Now that it has lost one electron, it has 11 protons and 10 electrons.
- The charges ​do not balance out
- There is ​one more proton​, so the overall charge of the sodium ion will be ​1+
- The charge is written as a superscript, like so:​ Na​+
We can also look at an anion formation, like for oxygen.

- Oxygen has 6 electrons in its 2nd shell (valence shell)

- Since it is easier for the atom to gain 2 electrons rather than lose 6 electrons,
- It will gain 2 electrons

- Now it has 8 protons and 10 electrons

- Charges ​do not balance out​, since there are ​two more​ electrons
- So the overall charge of the oxide ion is​ 2-
- If the charge is more than one, the​ number comes​ before the negative/positive sign
- ​ , the ​oxide ion.
Forming ​O2-​

You need to know ​some rules of ion formation

- Since all metals have low numbers of electrons in their valence shell (groups I, II, III)
- All metals form cations​ by losing electrons to form a full valence shell [ e.g. Na​+​, Mg​2+​, Al​3+ ​]
- And all metal ions are named by adding the word ‘ion’ after the metal name
- Sodium ion, magnesium ion, aluminium ion etc.

- Since all nonmetals have high numbers of electrons in their valence shell, (groups IV, V, VI, VII)
- All nonmetals form anions​ by gaining electrons to form a full valence shell [ e.g. Cl​-​, O​2-​, N​3-​ ]
- Nonmetal ions are not named simply by adding the word ‘ion’
- The name ending changes to -ide
- Chlorine atom -> chloride ion
- Oxygen atom -> oxide ion
- Nitrogen atom -> nitride ion

- Group VIII, or 0, called the ​noble gases, do not form ions

- They ​already have a full valence shell​ and do not need to lose or gain any electrons
- So their stable atom is their natural state, where it is neutral.

- it is logical to notice that all the elements in the same group form ions with same charges
- All group I metals form ions with charge 1+
- All group VII nonmetals form ions with charge 1-

You need to know ​that since these ions are electrically charged,
- Like charges will repel​: so cations will repel cations, anions will repel anions
- Opposite charges will attract​: so cations and anions will be attracted to each other
 Ionic Bonding

You need to know ​what ionic bonding is.

Ionic bond is the ​bonding between a metal and a nonmetal formed by the transfer electrons to form ions.

To form an ion, a metal has to lose electrons and a nonmetal has to gain electrons
- So in ionic bonding, the ​metal’s electrons are transferred to the nonmetal
- This ​forms ions of both, a cation and an anion
- The opposite charged will ​electrostatically attract each other
- This attractive force is the ionic bond

- The force causes the two element to chemically join and become a compound
- In this case, the formed compound is ​Sodium Chloride​ (takes the name of the ions)

You need to understand ​dot and cross diagrams.

Dot and cross diagrams are used to show the movement of electrons when elements bond.

- For simplicity, only the valence shell is drawn.

- One element’s electrons are drawn as crosses, the other element’s electrons are drawn as circles
- This is to distinguish where they came from

- The elements’ electron arrangements for before the transfer of electrons and after is drawn
- The movement of electron is shown by an arrow

For the case of the ionic bonding in sodium chloride, one electron from sodium goes to chlorine.
- Sometimes it may not be this simple
 - Taking​ magnesium chloride​ as an example,
- Magnesium is in group II, so it needs to lose two electrons to be stable
- Chlorine is in group VII, so it only needs one electron to be stable.
- In this case, ​two chlorine atoms​ receive one electron each from the one magnesium atom.
- In a dot-and-cross diagram, it will look something like this:

- From this we can determine the chemical formula of magnesium chloride

- For magnesium ion, the bond needs two chloride molecules, so it is ​MgCl​2

- Using the same idea, we can look at compounds like

- potassium oxide, ​K​2​O
- sodium phosphide ​Na​3​P

Ionic Lattice

You need to know ​what ionic lattices are.

Ionic bonding occurs between lots of ions in a huge structure called the ​giant ionic lattice
They do not exist in simple molecules (one of each ion)
- But in ​huge numbers of cations and anions forming a continuous and regular structure by attraction

- There is no way of finding out the total number of each ion,

- So we can write the ratio between the two, called the ​empirical formula
- Sodium chloride is one to one, so ​NaCl
- Magnesium chloride is one to two, so ​MgCl​2
- And so on
The syllabus says you should be able to, (SO check if you can):

- Describe the formation of ions by electron loss or gain.

- Describe the formation of ionic bonds between metals and non-metals as exemplified by elements from
Groups I and VII.
- Explain the formation of ionic bonds between metallic and non-metallic elements.
- Describe the lattice structure of ionic compounds as a regular arrangement of alternating positive and
negative ions, exemplified by the sodium chloride structure.