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LIVE LAB 04 • CHEMICAL BONDING
Keep ion centres fixed while charge, radius, shielding and electronic configuration reshape the anion cloud, then compare compounds and test Fajan's rule.
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COMPLETE CONCEPT GUIDE
An ionic model places positive and negative ions next to each other. Fajans’ rules explain how distortion of an anion’s electron cloud by a cation can give the interaction greater covalent character.
A smaller cation with greater positive charge generally has stronger polarizing power. Hold the anion fixed in the simulation and change the cation’s charge or radius to distinguish these two influences.
Larger anions usually have more easily distorted electron clouds. For the same cation, an iodide commonly shows more covalent character than a fluoride. Compare otherwise similar compounds before applying this qualitative trend.
Cations of similar size and charge can still differ in polarizing power because of their electronic configurations and shielding. Fajans’ rules are qualitative comparisons; they do not supply an exact numerical percentage of covalent bonding.
FAJAN'S RULE- POLARIZATION FAQ
Polarizing power is an ion’s ability to distort another ion’s electron cloud. Polarizability is the ease with which that cloud can be distorted. In the usual Fajans’ rules comparison, these refer to the cation and anion respectively.
With the same lithium cation, the larger iodide electron cloud is more easily polarized than the smaller fluoride cloud, giving lithium iodide greater covalent character in this comparison.
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