Читать книгу Geology For Dummies - Alecia M. Spooner - Страница 81

When two atoms trade electrons between their outer orbital shells, becoming a cation and an anion, they form an ionic bond. The result of an ionic bond is that the positively charged cation and negatively charged anion combine into a compound that has a neutral charge. All ionic bonds create compounds called salts. Of these compounds, you are most familiar with table salt, or NaCl. In this molecule, an atom of sodium (Na) and an atom of chlorine (Cl) have bonded together. They are held together because the single electron in the outer shell of the sodium atom has been donated to fill the outer shell of chlorine (which had only seven electrons to begin with). This bond is illustrated in Figure 5-4.