Do the TransitionPoor Metals form Ionic or Covalent Bonds with non-metal atoms?
There is so much misinformation float about concerning “ionic” and “covalent” bonds. I suppose that it is because some non-chemist chemistry teachers really don’t understand bonding, and it gets passed on to their students. ALL bonds involve the sharing of electrons. In some simple homonuclear molecules the sharing of electrons is equal so the bond is 100% covalent. But at the other side, there are no 100% ionic bonds. Chemical bonds lie along a continuum between between “covalent” and “ionic” and have characteristics of both. We place the bonds along this continuum by determining the percent ionic character of the covalent bonds. The percent ionic character depends on the electronegativity difference. The greater the electronegativity difference, the greater the ionic character. But the poor metal-nonmetal bonds have low electronegativity differences and therefore, these bonds tend to have a much greater covalent character. It’s also interesting to note that the electronegativity of a
