jadejadejade Posted May 25, 2017 Share Posted May 25, 2017 What is the difference between the two? I heard that a monatomic ion is only one atom but how could this be called an ion if it is only atom that has not shared electrons? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypervalent_iodine Posted May 25, 2017 Share Posted May 25, 2017 An example of a monoatomic ion would be Cl-. It has clearly taken electrons from somewhere to get there and would have a counter ion, but it is still monoatomic. You don't need a covalent component for it to be ionic. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrP Posted May 25, 2017 Share Posted May 25, 2017 Yes - the misunderstanding is of what an ion is - it can be a single atom or a part compound that has a charge imbalance. in Latin,, mono = 1 poly = many, so yes, a mono atomic ion only has one atom. Polyatomic = many (more than one) atom. The ion defines a charge imbalance. The same prefixes are used for single unit building blocks (mono-mers) that can be reacted into chains of many of the initial repeating unit (poly-mers). mer = unit. So monomer and polymer are single units and many units of a macromolecule. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sriman Dutta Posted May 26, 2017 Share Posted May 26, 2017 Monoatomic ions consist of single atoms for example Cl-. Polyatomic ions consist of multiple atoms. In other words, it's a radical. For example NH4+. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sensei Posted May 26, 2017 Share Posted May 26, 2017 (edited) Polyatomic ions consist of multiple atoms. In other words, it's a radical. "In chemistry, a radical (more precisely, a free radical) is an atom, molecule, or ion that has an unpaired valence electron." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_(chemistry) Edited May 26, 2017 by Sensei Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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