We will now consider the different ways we can draw or depict ionic bonds. We will continue looking at the most commonly known ionic compound , sodium chloride
The positively charged sodium cation and the negatively charged chloride anion like to position themselves next to each other due to their mutual electrostatic attraction. Because no electrons are shared, we don’t depict an ionic bond with a line as we do for covalent bonds. We simply recognize that the attraction is there due to the opposite charge signs on the ions.
The above diagram, however, is just a model. In nature, sodium chloride does not exist as a single sodium cation bonded with a single chloride anion. As we mentioned earlier
Sodium chloride is table salt—and if we were able to use a super-powered microscope that could examine table salt at the atomic level, we would see something like the following structure
We can see from this diagram that the Na and Cl ions naturally position themselves next to one another in space due to the shared electrostatic attractions between them
The ions are then held in place by their very strong ionic bonds. The above structure is known as a crystal lattice, and sodium chloride—like most ionic compounds—is a crystalline solid.