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Science, Tech, Math › Science
Ionic Compound Properties, Explained
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Salt shaker, close-up
Maximilian Stock Ltd. / Getty Images
By Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.
Updated March 02, 2021
Ionic compounds contain ionic bonds. An ionic bond is formed when there is a large electronegativity difference between the elements participating in the bond. The greater the difference, the stronger the attraction between the positive ion (cation) and negative ion (anion).
Ionic Compound Properties
Ionic compounds form when atoms connect to one another by ionic bonds.
An ionic bond is the strongest type of chemical bond, which leads to characteristic properties.
One atom in the bond has a partial positive charge, while the other atom has a partial negative charge. This electronegativity difference makes the bond polar, so some compounds are polar.
But, polar compounds often dissolve in water. This makes ionic compounds good electrolytes.
Due to the strength of the ionic bond, ionic compounds have high melting and boiling points and high enthalpies of fusion and vaporization.
Properties Shared by Ionic Compounds
The properties of ionic compounds relate to how strongly the positive and negative ions attract each other in an ionic bond. Iconic compounds also exhibit the following properties:
They form crystals.
Ionic compounds form crystal lattices rather than amorphous solids. Although molecular compounds form crystals, they frequently take other forms plus molecular crystals typically are softer than ionic crystals. At an atomic level, an ionic crystal is a regular structure, with the cation and anion alternating with each other and forming a three-dimensional structure based largely on the smaller ion evenly filling in the gaps between the larger ion.
They have high melting points and high boiling points.High temperatures are required to overcome the attraction between the positive and negative ions in ionic compounds. Therefore, a lot of energy is required to melt ionic compounds or cause them to boil.
They have higher enthalpies of fusion and vaporization than molecular compounds.
Just as ionic compounds have high melting and boiling points, they usually have enthalpies of fusion and vaporization that can be 10 to 100 times higher than those of most molecular compounds. The enthalpy of fusion is the heat required melt a single mole of a solid under constant pressure. The enthalpy of vaporization is the heat required for vaporize one mole of a liquid compound under constant pressure.
They're hard and brittle.Ionic crystals are hard because the positive and negative ions are strongly attracted to each other and difficult to separate, however, when pressure is applied to an ionic crystal then ions of like charge may be forced closer to each other. The electrostatic repulsion can be enough to split the crystal, which is why ionic solids also are brittle.
