Question #e486b

1 Answer
May 5, 2014

Actually both the sodium and the chlorine are changing as they become ions.

The Chlorine is an #s^2 p^5# electron configuration and adds one electron to become a #Cl^-1# anion. The Sodium is an #s^1# electron configuration and gives up the single electron to become a #Na^+1#Cation.

The ionic bond forms between the two ions when the charges are equal and opposite to form the #NaCl# molecule.

In ionic molecules the metal cation keeps the name and the non-metal anion keeps the root and adds the suffix -ide.

#NaCl# is Sodium Chloride

I hope this was helpful.
SMARTERTEACHER