Why is aluminum oxide ionic?
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Answer:
This article deals with aluminium oxide formula. Aluminium oxide refers to a chemical compound of aluminium and oxygen. Furthermore, it is also known as alumina. Moreover, it happens to be the most commonly occurring of the aluminium oxides. Also, the compound occurs naturally in the polymorphic phase that is crystalline. It is present in some minerals like corundum and bauxite.
What is Aluminium Oxide?
Aluminium oxide happens to be a white amorphous material that is odourless. Due to its various useful properties, the compound has significant contributions in many life-extending and society-welfare applications. Furthermore, the compound is thermally unstable and insoluble. Above all, the compound serves as a starting material for the purpose of an aluminium’s metal smelting.
Aluminium Oxide Formula
Derivation of Aluminium Oxide Formula
The formula of Aluminium oxide happens to be Al2O3. Aluminium oxide is an ionic compound. This is because it has a metal and a nonmetal. The metal is certainly the aluminium while oxygen is the non-metal. Furthermore, there are ionic compounds between metals and non-metals. Moreover, there is an exchange of electrons among the two atoms. Also, the metal donates electrons to the non-metal. Consequently, this results in the formation of the ionic bond.
Aluminium tends to form an ion with a charge of +3. Moreover, oxygen forms an ion with a -2 charge always. One important point to understand is that a compound’s overall charge should always be equivalent to zero or neutral. Therefore, one requires two aluminium atoms and 3 oxygen atoms so as to balance out the charge.
Moreover, when the charge gets balanced out, the compound will become neutral. Most noteworthy, this means that aluminium oxide’s formula is Al2O3. This shows two atoms of aluminium for every 3 atoms of oxygen. Corundum happens to be the most common structural form of crystalline aluminium oxide. Furthermore, the structure of corundum assumes a trigonal-like lattice form.