Can a covalent bond form between an anion and a cation? (Such as zirconium phosphate, Zr4+ and PO43-)
As you can find in Wikipedia about zirconium phosphate : "Of the four oxygen atoms in the phosphate groups, three are bonded to three different Zr atoms, forming a cross-linked covalent network. "
that is why i am confused.
Srinivas Mandava
Cation and anion cannot form covalent bond. In case of Zr^+4 and (PO4)^-3 there is a ionic bond because the electronegativity difference between them is >1.7.
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Rebecca Leese
All ionic bonds have some covalent character.
Wikipedia is actually a good source for a basic understanding of this; especially the sections of polarisation effects and a comparison to covalent bonding.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionic_bonding
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