Hi sir. In some textbooks the bond between the sodium and oxygen in the carboxylate salt is represented as covalent (line) instead of the true ionic bond. Can you get away with doing either? or is it best to do the way you show in this video
It is definitely not a covalent bond. Where have you seen that? What you might see is the formula presented without the charges being shown e.g. CH3COONa. That’s fair enough as we don’t show the charges in ionic formulae such as NaCl. Bear in mind that, in solution, the carboxylate and metal ions are separate. In the neutralisation reaction, the metal ion is a spectator.
Simon Flynn thanks for your reply. I saw it in the Oxford AQA A-Level book under the ‘Uses of esters’ section. Although they correctly showed the ionic bond in sodium ethanoate on the previous page, as far as I can tell it looks like they showed it as covalent on page 420.
Hi sir. In some textbooks the bond between the sodium and oxygen in the carboxylate salt is represented as covalent (line) instead of the true ionic bond. Can you get away with doing either? or is it best to do the way you show in this video
It is definitely not a covalent bond. Where have you seen that? What you might see is the formula presented without the charges being shown e.g. CH3COONa. That’s fair enough as we don’t show the charges in ionic formulae such as NaCl. Bear in mind that, in solution, the carboxylate and metal ions are separate. In the neutralisation reaction, the metal ion is a spectator.
Simon Flynn thanks for your reply. I saw it in the Oxford AQA A-Level book under the ‘Uses of esters’ section. Although they correctly showed the ionic bond in sodium ethanoate on the previous page, as far as I can tell it looks like they showed it as covalent on page 420.