Question

Explain why LiCl is more covalent then KCl?

Answer 1

This is due to a phenomenon called polarization. It causes the formation of partial covalent character in an ionic bond. It depends upon four factors out of which two are : 1) Smaller the size of the cation, more the attraction and more the polarization. 2) Large the size of the anion, more the distortion and more the polarization. The anion here is same, Cl-, but the cation Li+ is much smaller than K+ and so more polarization occurs in LiCl, thereby making it more covalent than KCl.