http://www.ck12.org Chapter 3. Chemical Interactions
Crystals
Many compounds form molecules, but ionic compounds form crystals instead. Acrystalconsists of many alternating
positive and negative ions bonded together in a matrix. Look at the crystal of sodium chloride (NaCl) in theFigure
3.8. The sodium and chloride ions are attracted to each other because they are oppositely charged, so they form ionic
bonds.
FIGURE 3.8
Sodium chloride crystals are cubic in
shape. Other ionic compounds may have
crystals with different shapes.You can watch a short video at the following URL to see how sodium and chlorine combine to form sodium chloride:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-nMmwfTV-w.
MEDIA
Click image to the left for use the URL below.
URL: http://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/79973