Question 25 – Ionic bonding - Edexcel Chemistry Questions

Ionic bonding Questions

Practise Edexcel GCSE Chemistry Ionic bonding with exam-style questions for Foundation and Higher tier. 42 questions, matched to the Edexcel GCSE Chemistry (1CH0) specification and written in Paper 1 and Paper 2 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.

Sodium chloride, $NaCl\text{NaCl}$ , is an ionic compound. It contains sodium cations and chloride anions. Figure 1 shows the electronic configurations of a sodium atom and a chlorine atom.

Figure 1: Schematic diagrams of a sodium atom and a chlorine atom. The sodium atom has three electron shells with 2, 8, and 1 electrons (represented as dots). The chlorine atom has three electron shells with 2, 8, and 7 electrons (represented as crosses).

Describe how to complete the diagram in Figure 2 to show the electronic configurations and charges of the ions in sodium chloride.

Figure 2: Incomplete diagram showing square brackets around empty electron shell circles for a sodium ion (left) and a chloride ion (right). Spaces are left for the charges to be written on the top right of each set of brackets.

In your answer, specify:

The electronic configuration (number of electrons in each shell) and the charge for the sodium ion
The electronic configuration (number of electrons in each shell, showing dot/cross distinction) and the charge for the chloride ion