Question
Question: How can I represent the composition of an ionic compound?...
How can I represent the composition of an ionic compound?
Solution
An ionic compound is a chemical compound which composed of ions that are held together by electrostatic forces which in general known as ionic bonding and the main characteristic of ionic compound is they are overall neutral.
Complete answer:
Ionic compound is generally composed of two types of ions out of which one is positively charged known by the name cation and other is negatively charged known as anions. When they dissociate they form anion and cation.
The composition of an ionic compound is represented with the help of ratio of cations to anions in the empirical formula where empirical formula can be defined as the simplest formula which provides the lowest whole number ratio of atoms which exist in the compound and it tells us about the relative number of every element in the compound.
Ionic compounds are generally those compounds when alkali metals form ionic bond with halogens this is due to the reason that alkali metals can easily form M+and on the other hand halides ions are readily formed by halogen which are represented by X−and they form salt which is represented byM+X−.
Hence, we can say that ionic compounds are represented with the help of anion and cation or by their ratios.
Note: The general example of ionic compound is common salt which is represented by the chemical formula NaClwhich is composed by cations and anions represented by Na+andCl−, respectively.