HESI Next Generation Practice Exam

Transferring electrons from one atom to another creates charged ions that attract each other; that electrostatic attraction is what holds an ionic bond together. When there’s a large difference in electronegativity, one atom donates electrons and becomes a positively charged cation, while the other accepts electrons and becomes a negatively charged anion. The resulting opposite charges pull each other strongly, forming a solid network like in table salt. In contrast, covalent bonds involve sharing electrons between atoms, hydrogen bonds are interactions between a hydrogen atom and a highly electronegative partner rather than full bonds between atoms, and metallic bonds arise from a “sea” of delocalized electrons surrounding a lattice of positive ions rather than a simple electron transfer.