Chemical Compounds = Ionic Bonds?

Mr_Bojingles

From what I gather both ionic and covalent bonds transform all the elements involved into ions. Does that mean every chemical compound that exists consists of ions and not atoms or are there chemical compounds that are made of pure unionized atoms?

Also when they speak of ionized water what do they mean? If all compounds are made of ions why would a hydrogen oxygen compound be any different?

chemhelper

The overall idea deals with electronegativity. Basically, some elements have more "electron attraction power" than others. Electronegativity varies from element to element.

It is incorrect to say that compounds consist of ions. An ion is an individual atom or molecule that has a distinct charge (i.e. has extra electrons or is missing electrons). Compounds may have ionic bonds, but this does not mean that the atoms are ions (or will even become ions). The measure of electronegativity of a bond determines if it is covalent, ionic or somewhere in between.

The only compound that is completely covalent is one where the atoms involved all have the same elecronegativity (usually identical atoms)

Mr_Bojingles

Its still a bit vague to me. When they speak of ionizing radiation which ionizes matter by stripping away one or more electrons do they just mean that they unstabilize matter and change the chemical properties of it?

For example if nitrous oxide is bombarded with alpha or beta particles until it loses electrons will that change the effects nitrous oxide has on the brain as an anasthetic or drug?

GCT

Covalent compounds consist of covalent bond characters they are not ionic in nature. When there's more or less a separation of charges the compound is essentially together by the net attraction of the opposite charges on the elements that are involved.

"They" probably meant 'de-ionized' water, which has an appropriated dielectric constant as well as total organic carbon content. It's a very pure form of water, with metals as well as carbon based compounds filtered from it.