Ok so my understanding is that NaCl, and other salts, are bound together by ionic bonds.
In these bonds, one element typically gives up an electron completely to the other, as opposed to covalent bonds for example, where the electron (or electrons) are actually “shared” between the atoms.
So here, sodium is happy to give up its electron and live its life as Na+, while chlorine will gladly take it and become Cl-.
Since they now are oppositely charged, they kinda stick to each other because of electrostatic attraction, but not like the atoms in a molecule would.
Ok so my understanding is that NaCl, and other salts, are bound together by ionic bonds.
In these bonds, one element typically gives up an electron completely to the other, as opposed to covalent bonds for example, where the electron (or electrons) are actually “shared” between the atoms.
So here, sodium is happy to give up its electron and live its life as Na+, while chlorine will gladly take it and become Cl-.
Since they now are oppositely charged, they kinda stick to each other because of electrostatic attraction, but not like the atoms in a molecule would.
ah right so in the soup it dissolves into Na+ and Cl- which are nonreactive as opposed to Na and Cl