Are All Ceramic Materials Ionocovalent?

[Aysee]

Hi,

I couldn't get enough information about ionocovalent compounds. What is the exact meaning of it?

Does it means that the material has both ionic and covalent compound or something else? If it means that the material has both ionic and covalent character then I have a second question. Only diamond has 100% covalent character the other materials has covalent + another type of bond together. In ceramic materials generally ionic and covalent bonds are seen together. Then is it possible to say that all these materials are ionocovlent?

According to my search AlN and Al2O3 are ionocovalent materials but I am confused. I'll be very glad if you can inform me.

Thanks,

Ayse

 

[MATLABdude]

My understanding of ionocovalent is just that it's a bond somewhere between an ionic bond (ionization of the bonding species and complete electron removal from the positive species) and a covalent bond (sharing of electrons in molecular orbitals). In other words, it's a bond that's quite polar (unequal electron 'sharing') but not full-out ionic.

 

[alxm]

Simply put, I don't think there's any such thing as an iono-covalent compound.
If you're discussing iono-covalence, as you surmise, you're talking about the degree of ionic versus covalent character of a bond.

Reality is that this is just a simplified model (and very old one). Very few bonds/compounds are fully 'covalent' or fully 'ionic'. The vast majority are somewhere in-between. In fact, it's actually pretty difficult to justify the model theoretically. Mulliken population analysis (a measure of this character from a quantum-mechanical calculation of a molecule) doesn't see a whole lot of use.