What is the difference between an anion and an ionic compound?

Answer 1

An anion is a negatively-charged ion. For example, the chloride ion (Cl-) is an anion. A cation is a positively-charged ion. For example, the sodium ion (Na+) is a cation. When a cation and an anion combine an ionic compoundis formed. For example, sodium and chlorine combine to form sodium chloride - common table salt. Ionic compounds are formed from a metal (eg sodium) and a non-metal (eg chlorine). In the case of sodium chloride, the sodium atom (Na) loses an electron and becomes a sodium ion (Na+). The chlorine atom (Cl) gains the electron and becomes a chloride ion (Cl-) . The attraction between the positive and negative charges forms an ionic bond, holding the two ions together. See these sites for more information: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/chemistry/classifyingmaterials/ionic_bondingrev5.shtml http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/compounds/ionicvscovalent.shtml

Answer 2

Cation is an atom with a positive charge... one or more of its electrons are missing, resulting a positive charge. There are electron orbitals around atoms and each orbital needs certain number of electrons to be 'stable'.

anions have one or more extra electrons resulting in a negative charge.

Cation is formed by lose of electron which is an endothermic process, while anion is formed by gain of electron which is an exothermic process.

Answer 3

the difference of Ionic and ionic compounds or ionic and covalent compounds because the only difference is that Ionic starts with capital I and ionic stars with lower case i but anyways if its ionic and covalent compounds the answer is that they are different by:

In brief, ionic bonds are when an electrons is actually transferred from one atom to another and bonding forms through ionic attraction (negative to positive). Covalent bonding is electron sharing, where both atoms use the same electrons to contribute towards achieving an octet of electrons in their valence shell. I'll also explain some more differences:

The major difference between covalent and ionic bonds has to do with the electronegativity (ability to attract electrons) differences between the two atoms in the bond. Ionic bonds are formed when there is a strong difference between the electronegativity of the two atoms involved. Also, a metal is almost ALWAYS involved in ionic bonding. In fact, I can't think of any ionic compounds not involving metals.

A good example of ionic bonding is common table salt, sodium chloride. Sodium is an alkaline metal with a low electronegativity of 0.9, while the halogen chlorine has an electronegativity of 3.0. Sodium has only one valence electron, so it has a tendency to lose it in order to reach a valence octet (eight valence electrons). Chlorine has seven valence electrons, meaning it almost always gains one in order to reach an octet. When sodium and chlorine come into close enough range, the strong pull of the chlorine rips the single valence electron off of the sodium atom, leading to the ions Na+ and Cl-. Now that they have opposite charges, they are strongly attracted to each other, forming a unit of sodium chloride.

A VERY important detail to remember about ionic compounds is that they do not form molecules! They form structures called crystal latices, which are essentially large blocks of ions arranged in an orderly manner. This why when viewed up close, table salt takes a distinct cube shape.

An ion formula is what is called an "empirical formula", which simply represents the ratios of atoms in the compound. In sodium chloride, NaCl, for ever atom of sodium, there is an atom of chlorine.

Covalent bonds form between atoms that do not have a significant difference in electronegativity. Almost all covalent are formed between non-metals and atoms of the same kind (such as chlorine-chlorine molecules). There are two important types of covalent bonds: non-polar and polar bonds.

Non-polar covalent bonds are incredibly rare, and only formed when there is a minute difference in the electronegativity of two atoms. Most commonly, they form between two atoms of the same type, which have no difference in electronegativity. A perfect example is an N2 atom, or diatomic nitrogen. Both atoms have an electronegativity of 3.0, meaning there is no difference in how they attract electrons. Therefore, they share six electrons equally amongst themselves (nitrogen has 5 in its valence shell, so 3 more leads to 8), forming a non-polar covalent bond (triple bond, in this case).

Much more common are polar covalent bonds, which form between atoms with slightly different electronegativities. A very common compound with polar covalent bonds is water, H2O. Oxygen's electronegativity is 3.5, while hydrogen has a value of 2.1. Oxygen's pull on electrons is not strong enough to take them from the hydrogen, so the two share electrons in order to reach full valence shells. While bonded, however, the electrons are not shared equally. Oxygen's greater pull causes the electrons to more often be present by the oxygen atom, giving the oxygen atom a partial negative charge and the hydrogen atoms a partial positive charge.

These are the major differences between ionic and covalent bonds. Hope it helps!

Answer 4

An ion is a compound or an element with an electric charge.

Answer 5

Cations are ions with a positive charge and anions are ions with a negative charge