Skip to Content Go to sign in Skip to Primary Navigation Skip to Secondary Navigation Skip to Page Navigation Skip to Header Navigation Skip to Footer Navigation Read more about accessability options and our navigation

Physics Classroom is making strides to make our site accessible to everyone. Our site contains 6 navigation areas. The Primary, Secondary, and Page Level navigations have a screen reader version of their nav structure that allows using the left and right keys to navigate sibling navigation items, and up or down keys to navigate parent or child navigation items. The others can be navigated using tabs. The Primary Navigation handles the first 2 levels of site pages. The Secondary (which is not always available) handles the 3rd and 4th level of structure. The Page level navigation allows you to navigate the current page's headings quickly. The Header Navigation contains the Light/Dark Mode toggle, Search, Notifications and account login. The Breadcrumb Navigation contains the breadcrumb of the current page. If the current page has a breadcrumb, you can get to it by skipping to the content and tabbing in reverse (shift plus tab). The Footer Navigation contains links such as Privacy, Contact, about and terms. Some resources contain an Audio Player that can be activated by holding down the T key for 3 seconds, and then using K to pause and resume. While not every area of Physics Classroom is usable purely from keyboard and screen reader, we are committed to continue work on making this possible. If you have questions or need additional help, please use this link to contact us.

Return to screen reader navigation
Home Concept Builders Chemical Bonding and Molecular Shape Ionic Bonding Help Help 4

Ionic Bonding - Questions 4 Help

Metal and nonmetal elements form ionic bonds when they combine to form compounds. The ionic bond involves a transfer of electrons. The metal atom loses one or more electrons to form a positive ion (cation). The nonmetal atom gains one or more electrons to form a negative ion (anion). The attraction between these two oppositely charged ions is known as ionic bond.

There are two questions in this Question Group. Each question is very similar to one another. The question below is one of the questions.
 

Version 1:
Consider the four pairs of elements below. Which two pairs are most likely to form an ionic bond?
 

Al and O, Ca and S, O and Cl, S and O

Ionic bonds occur when there is a transfer of electrons from one element to another element. This creates oppositely-charged ions - a cation and an anion. When it comes to charged ions, opposites attract. But for the transfer to occur, it is necessary to have an element that is willing to give up or donate one or more electrons and another element willing to accept those electrons. Most metals are good electron donors and nonmetals are generally good electron acceptors. And so ionic bonds are observed between metal and nonmetal elements.

As a reference, the periodic table below shows the position of metals and nonmetals.
 
Concept Builder Teacher Notes Directions