Structures of Compounds

Structures of chemical compounds are determined by several factors:

(i)    The type of bonding

(ii)    The atoms present in the compound

(iii)   The size of the atoms

(iv)   The attraction or repulsion between atoms

(v)    The repulsive forces between electrons (bond pair and lone pair)

Once all these factors are understood predicting structures of compounds will be easy.

Structures of ionic compounds can be defined as follows:

All ionic compounds exist as crystals (compounds in which the atoms are arranged in a regular geometric form). This is so because once an ionic bond is formed (by exchange of electrons) the attractive forces between the oppositely charged are huge. Only by forming a very closely packed structure (possible only by arranging in a geometric pattern) they become stable.