Question

NaCl is an ionic compound but LiCl has some covalent character, explain.

Answer 1

• Li⁺ ion has very small size and therefore, the charge density on Li⁺ is high.
• Due to this, it has high tendency to distort the electron cloud around the negatively charged chloride ion (Cl^- ) which is larger in size.
• This results in partial covalent character of the LiCl bond.
• Na⁺ ion cannot distort the electron cloud of Cl^- due to the bigger size of Na⁺ compared to Li⁺
• Hence, NaCl is an ionic compound but LiCl has some covalent character.