What would happen if a positively charged sodium ion and a negatively charged charged chlorine ion came into contact?

Answer 1

Sodium ions and chlorine ions never come into contact unless perhaps if they were placed in a synchrotron and smashed into one another while traveling at extremely high velocities.

If the ions were in the gas phase, the temperature would have to be tremendously high. The positive and negative ions attract one another of course such that if the pressure were low enough and the volume that contains the ions were large enough, then an ion pair would eventually find one another and form an ionic bond with a detectable lifetime and the NaCl species formed would remain in the gas phase. Eventually, another ion would come close enough to the NaCl species at very high velocity or the NaCl would smash into the vessel wall to break it apart into atoms or ions.

For NaCl to dissolve in a solvent to an appreciable degree, the solvent would have to be very polar such as water. When dissolved in a solvent, it would be difficult for the ions to come together to form an ionic bond because each ion is surrounded by solvent molecules, which is exactly why NaCl dissolves in polar solvents in the first place. Should they come together by chance, they would not remain bonded for very long because the solvent molecules would once again surround each ion thereby insulating the positive and negative charges from one another. The thermal motion of the solvent molecules would cause the ions to separate once again.

Answer 2

The sodium ion would transfer its electron to the chlorine ion, forming an ionic bond between the two ions to create sodium chloride (table salt). The positively charged sodium ion and negatively charged chlorine ion would then be attracted to each other due to their opposite charges, forming a stable compound.

Answer 3

First, sodium react with water.