Oxygen and sodium chloride (commonly known as table salt) are different in their chemical compositions and bonding.
1. Oxygen is a diatomic molecule, meaning it exists as O2, where two oxygen atoms share electrons to form a stable molecule.
2. Sodium chloride, on the other hand, is an ionic compound made up of sodium ions (Na+) and chloride ions (Cl-). Sodium donates an electron to chlorine to form an ionic bond.
3. In sodium chloride, the sodium atom loses an electron to achieve a stable electron configuration (sodium becomes Na+), and the chlorine atom gains that electron to achieve stability (chlorine becomes Cl-).
4. The attraction between the positively charged sodium ions and the negatively charged chloride ions results in the formation of a crystal lattice structure, where the ions are held together by electrostatic forces.
5. This ionic bonding in sodium chloride is different from the covalent bonding present in oxygen, where electrons are shared between atoms.
In summary, while oxygen atoms share electrons to form a covalent bond in a molecule of oxygen, sodium and chloride ions undergo ionic bonding to create sodium chloride.
