<P> In ionic bonding, the atoms are bound by attraction of oppositely charged ions, whereas, in covalent bonding, atoms are bound by sharing electrons to attain stable electron configurations . In covalent bonding, the molecular geometry around each atom is determined by valence shell electron pair repulsion VSEPR rules, whereas, in ionic materials, the geometry follows maximum packing rules . One could say that covalent bonding is more directional in the sense that the energy penalty for not adhering to the optimum bond angles is large, whereas ionic bonding has no such penalty . There are no shared electron pairs to repel each other, the ions should simply be packed as efficiently as possible . This often leads to much higher coordination numbers . In NaCl, each ion has 6 bonds and all bond angles are 90 ° . In CsCl the coordination number is 8 . By comparison carbon typically has a maximum of four bonds . </P> <P> Purely ionic bonding cannot exist, as the proximity of the entities involved in the bonding allows some degree of sharing electron density between them . Therefore, all ionic bonding has some covalent character . Thus, bonding is considered ionic where the ionic character is greater than the covalent character . The larger the difference in electronegativity between the two types of atoms involved in the bonding, the more ionic (polar) it is . Bonds with partially ionic and partially covalent character are called polar covalent bonds . For example, Na--Cl and Mg--O interactions have a few percent covalency, while Si--O bonds are usually ~ 50% ionic and ~ 50% covalent . Pauling estimated that an electronegativity difference of 1.7 (on the Pauling scale) corresponds to 50% ionic character, so that a difference greater than 1.7 corresponds to a bond which is predominantly ionic . Ionic character in covalent bonds can be directly measured for atoms having quadrupolar nuclei (H, N, Br, Cl or I). These nuclei are generally objects of NQR nuclear quadrupole resonance and NMR nuclear magnetic resonance studies . Interactions between the nuclear quadrupole moments Q and the electric field gradients (EFG) are characterized via the nuclear quadrupole coupling constants </P> <Dl> <Dd> QCC = e q Q / h </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> QCC = e q Q / h </Dd>

Describe the energy change associated with ionic bond formation