The non-metallic atoms will gain electrons, while the metallic atoms will lose electrons to become ions. An ionic compound is thus formed and all ions will have the noble gas configuration/structure.
Nonmetals gain electrons.
They tend to gain electrons when reacting with a metal. Metals generally are short of a full octet by 1 to 4 valence electrons. It is easier to drop 2 electrons than try to gain 6 electrons. The elements in group four can go either way, but the other metals will give up electrons, and non-metals will take them.
== == When metals react with other elements, the atoms of the metals give up their valence electrons.
Metals loss electrons and nonmetals gain electrons.
When two nonmetals react, they typically share electrons to form covalent bonds. This allows them to achieve a more stable electronic configuration. The resulting compound is usually a molecule with lower energy than the individual atoms.
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Nonmetals usually accept electrons to become negative ions (anions), e.g. Cl + e- --> Cl-.
The nonmetals share the atoms when reacting with each other.
metals lose electrons when they react with a non-metal
When metals react with other elements, the atoms of the metals tend to lose electrons. This is because metals have few electrons in their outermost shell and losing those electrons allows them to achieve a stable electron configuration.
The family of elements that react readily with metals is the halogens. This group includes elements such as fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine. Halogens are highly reactive nonmetals that readily form compounds with metals by gaining an electron to achieve a stable electron configuration.
Metals tend to lose electrons to form positively charged ions, while nonmetals tend to gain electrons to form negatively charged ions. When metals and nonmetals react, they often form ionic compounds through the transfer of electrons. This transfer of electrons leads to the formation of a bond between the metal and nonmetal atoms.