Pure chemical substances are classified as ionic, metallic, covalent molecular and covalent network. In this essay I will describe the nature of each bonding present in these different types of substances and use this to explain the physical properties they exhibit and their structures. Ionic compounds are compounds that are composed of positive and negative ions. An ionic compound is a chemical compound in which ions are held together in a lattice structure by ionic bonds. Usually, the positively charged portion consists of metal (cations) and the negatively charged portion is an (anion) or polyatomic ion. Ions in ionic compounds are held together by the electrostatic forces between oppositely charged bodies. .
The positive and negative ions in these compounds are thought to be arranged in an orderly three-dimensional lattice. For example, the structure of sodium chloride is shown. In the lattice, each positive sodium ion is surrounded by six negative chloride ions and each negative chloride ion is surrounded by six positive sodium ions. The position of the ions is fixed and apart from vibration about these fixed positions no other movement of the ions occurs in the solid compound. Each ion in an ionic solid is held in the crystal lattice by strong electrostatic attractions to the oppositely charged ions around it. These electrostatic forces between the positive and negative ions are called ionic bonds. Because ionic compounds have high melting points, in other words considerable energy is required to disrupt the attractive forces between the positive and negative ions; ionic bonding is regarded as an example of strong bonding. It's also a bond in which on atom loses an electron to form a positive ion (cation) and the other atom gains an electron in order to have a full outer shell of electrons to make them stable. One atom pulls an electron from another atom.
For example in sodium chloride, sodium loses one electron to form a sodium ion, electron is not loss but transferred to chlorine to form chlorine ion.
