Which of the following represents the kind of bonding present in ammonium chloride?
Answer Details
Ammonium chloride contains both ionic and covalent bonds.
In ammonium chloride, the ammonium ion (NH4+) is positively charged and the chloride ion (Cl-) is negatively charged. These ions are held together by ionic bonds, which are formed between positively and negatively charged ions.
However, the bond between the hydrogen atom in the ammonium ion and the nitrogen atom in the ammonium ion is also a covalent bond. This type of covalent bond is known as a dative covalent bond, or a coordinate covalent bond, because the electron pair being shared is supplied by one atom only (the nitrogen atom in this case).
So, the kind of bonding present in ammonium chloride is both ionic and dative covalent.
In simple terms, ammonium chloride contains both ionic bonds between its positive and negative ions, and a dative covalent bond between the hydrogen atom and nitrogen atom within the ammonium ion.