Ionic Compounds

• Metals tend to form cations, nonmetals tend to form anions
• metals and non-metals tend to react with each other, where nonmetals take electrons from metals.
• what are ionic compounds?

  compounds formed by positive and negative ions
• what is an ionic bond?

  the bond in an ionic compound
• ionic compounds that contain two elements usually contain one metal and one nonmetal
• what happens when the elements don't have enough atoms to fill both outer orbitals?

  more atoms combine to fill the outer orbitals. e.g. CaCl2, one calcium atom, two chlorine atoms
• ionic compounds are hard, brittle solids with a high melting point
• most ionic compounds dissolve in water, which produces a solution which conducts electricity
• pure water doesn't conduct electricity well because, unlike other water, it doesn't contain ions
• The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) names chemicals
• FORMULAS OF IONIC COMPOUND

  1. Write the symbols of the elements, with the metal on the left and the non-metal on the right
  2. Write the ionic charge above each ion symbol
  3. Crisscross the numbers above the symbols and make them subscripts of the opposite ion
  4. Reduce to lowest terms
• to specify the ionic charge of the element, write the metal, then the ionic charge in roman numerals. E.g. lead with an ionic charge of 4 with oxygen would be "lead (IV) oxide"