Why can't ionic compounds conduct electricity while in a solid state?
961464
i think it's because in solid states, the electrostatic forces keep the positive and negative ions together.  but when placed in water, the ions separate, free to move about in the water.
799604
If the ionic compound is soluble, no precipitate is formed.\n\nOn the other-hand, if an ionic compound is not very soluble in the solvent, then it will precipitate out of solution.\n\nFor example, Sodium chloride is soluble and Silver nitrate is soluble, but if these solutions are mixed, some of the Silver ions will react with chloride ions and form solid Silver chloride precipitate.
697035
this page has all your answers about ionic compounds\nhttp://misterguch.brinkster.net/ionic.html\n\nthis link give the answer to q2\nhttp://www.uncp.edu/home/mcclurem/lattice/halite1.gif
573262
Pure water is *not* a good conductor of electricity.  Dissolved ions are necessary to conduct electricity and at room temperature, there is only 10^-7 mol/L of H+ and OH- in pure water.\n\nDissolving salts (including strong acids) in water greatly increases the conductivity of the solution.\n\nTap water is a modest conductor of electricity because of dissolved ionic minerals and impurities.\n\nHeating water increases its dissociation constant making more H+ and OH- available in solution.
413863
It really depends on how free electrons are to move with depends on how the molecules are bonded together. So, covalent bonds, like those in glass, has the electrons constrained to an individual molecule, so they are not free to move much. The same is true of solid ionic bonds, like salt. However, an electrolyte like salt, dissolved in water makes a good conductor because the ions are free to move through the water,  so a current can flow though it. Metals are good conductors because the electrons are not constrained to a particular atom or area, the entire metal bonds together by sharing its electrons across the entire metal, and so they are free to move making it a good conductor for electricity.\n\nEdit: Despite what has been said, the number of valence electrons is not a great way to determine conductivity. For example, most metals, which are very good conductors, have two (and some, like gold I believe, have only one), whereas carbon, which is used in resistors because it doesn't conduct electricity as well, has four valence electrons.
790888
It lacks the crystalline electron structure that elements like magnesium and iron have. Thus, it cannot align into electrical dipoles, and is not magnetic.
482712
um...  subtract???  hahaha\n\nThe higher the differences in electronegativity, the more ionic the compound.  The higher electronegative atom/ion will want to "hog" all the electrons.  They are greedy like that.  They don't want to share (which would be a covalent bond).
126982
Solids, whether pure elements or in general, are crystals made up of ions or molecules, or in rare cases like diamond a single compound of covalent bonds. The thermal stability of a crystal depends on the electrostatic (electrical charge, dipol or quadrupol) property of the constituents and their orientation, as well as their ability to retain constituents placed on the surface to the liquid. Electrostatic forces depend on the charge (or partial charge in case of dipols) and the inverse squared distance of the charges. Quadrupol forces aka Van der Waals forces depend on the inverse sixth potency of the charge.\n\nUsually crystals made up of molecules break up into single molecules when melting. In the liquid these molecules still interact with each other, until at boiling point these interactions aren't strong enough to retain the molecules in the liquid. Crystals made up of ions create ionic melts held together by electrostatic attraction. This isn't found for pure elements, though. Metals are similar in the liquid and solid state, with ionized atoms surrounded by a dislocated electron cloud. Covalently bonded crystals don't melt, but may transform into different compounds.\n\nNote that most elements have several different solid states.\n\nElemental carbon can be found as monomer or low-count polymer fragments in the gaseous phase, no liquid phase (except Buckminster Fullerenes) that I know of and several very different solid phases: graphite (thermodynamically most stable form), diamond, and Buckminster Fullerenes and variations thereof which don't really behave like a solid.\n\nSeveral gaseous elements have no known solids at normal pressure. Iodine has no liquid phase at normal pressure.\n\n\nIn a very general sense, the stronger the attractive forces between the elemental constituents, the more stable the solid/liquid phase. Covalently bonded elements tend to have higher melting points than metals, which in turn tend to have higher melting points than elements occurring in distinct molecules. Quite often the solid and even liquid phases include a change of atomic structure and nature of the bonds. Even in the gaseous phase, sometimes pairing of neutrally charged molecules may occur.
850017
Insulators do not have free electrons to conduct heat or electricity.\n\nMetals, on the other hand, DO have free electrons, and so conduct electricity and heat.  ALL elements can be classified as either conductors, semiconductors, or insulators, depending on how easily electrons will flow.\n\nThe only exception to this rule is diamond, which is an electrical insulator (no free electrons), but an excellent heat conductor.  (The reason is that heat can be transferred by atomic vibration of the diamond crystal lattice, but electricity cannot)
59794
i dunno the first one...but sharing electrons is a covalent bond, and charged atoms are ions and they form ionic bonds
934554
The passage of electric Voltage is the movement of electrons through a substance. This is down to two main factors.  \n1 The type of bonding.  In metals which tend to be the most conductive the bonding is called a metallic bond.  In this type of bonding the electrons are free to move throughout the whole substance think of it as protons floating in a sea of electrons.  With ceramics for instance the predominate type of bonding is covalent where the electrons are shared between different atoms in the ceramic matrix.  This restricts the ability of the electrons to move and as a result Ceramics tend to be insulators.\n\n2 Atomic Structure.  This can effect the conductivity and many other properties.  Depending on how the atoms are spatially alligned, electron movement can be hampered of assisted.
438205
Though Ionci compounds tend to be very stable, they dissolve very easily in water. The + ions are surround by OH- ions, and the - ions by H+ ions. Every thing is able to move around freely, so there are many electrons moving around. So when a potentiol difference (voltage) is applied, there is an electric current.
400180
Metals conduct because they have free electrons, free in the sense free from the bonding to the atom.\n\nSemi conductors do not have free electrons. They are insulators near absolute temperature. But when temperature is raised some of the electrons are freed and become conductors. \n\nAdding (doping) trivalent (three valence electrons) atoms produce P type semi conductors.\n\n By this addition we have not made any free electrons. Thus still the semiconductor can free electrons only when temperature is raised.\n\nBut since the doped atom has only three electrons, the semiconductor’s bonds are complete only when one more electron is added to every doped atom.\n\nThus the P type semiconductor is always in need of one electron per impurity atom.\n\nWe say that a ‘hole’ is there to accept an electron. The number of holes is equal to the number of trivalent atom added. \n\nThese holes are free to move from atom to atom like electrons in metals.\n\nHence P type semi conductor conducts current by the movement of holes.
340719
In either case they work by being resistant to the transfer of energy.\n\nDifferent kinds of energy are resisted in different ways.\n\nElectrical insulators are made of materials that have their electrons bound more tightly.\n\nHeat insulators are made of materials that don't conduct heat very well.  Often, they contain lots of air-pockets which is itself a good insulator of conductive heat.
708251
You should expect a molecular compound to form between N and O (as opposed to an ionic compound).  This is because N and O are both nonmetals.  An ionic compound will form when a metal and a nonmetal combine.  I believe that this is what your question is getting at.
481084
Well, it all depends on what kinds of atoms are involved.   For instance, a covalent bond between two atoms with very small radius is probably much greater than an ionic bond between two atoms with similar electronegative values.  What I mean is that comparing ionic and covalent bonds is a relative thing; there are many premises involved.
933667
You get the first answered.\nCovalent bonds are strong and don't disassociate into ions, as ionic bonds do. Watch.\nNaCl common salt, sodium and chlorine, put in solution.\n\nNa+  and Cl- they disassociate and you can follow the path of electricity Electron jumps from sodium to be accepted by chlorine. That is electron flow; conduction of electricity.