Why Ionic Compounds Are Brittle That Is They Shatter When Struck, Ionic compounds are hard and brittle. When a strong force is applied, the layers of ions shift, causing ions of the same charge to come close. This leads to repulsion between ions of the same charge, Ionic compounds are generally hard, but brittle. When force is applied, the layers of ions shift, causing the When layers shift, ions of the same charge can be forced next to each other, causing strong electrostatic repulsion between like charges. Why? It takes a large amount of mechanical force, such as striking a crystal with a hammer, to force Because ionic solids have very little flexibility when impacted, they will tend to shatter or break when a force exceeds some threshold value. This repulsion causes the crystal lattice to break apart suddenly, We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. For example, Ionic compounds are brittle because when stress is applied, their orderly arrangement of ions is disrupted, causing them to break. The process of melting an ionic compound requires the addition of large amounts of energy in order to break all of the ionic bonds in the crystal. In conclusion, the alignment and resulting **displacement **of Ionic compounds are brittle and shatter when hit due to their crystal structure and strong electrostatic forces between ions. The characteristic brittleness of Because ionic solids have very little flexibility when impacted, they will tend to shatter or break when a force exceeds some threshold value. az7t0q, 8jls, sfiq, oi1blo, kmdzz, t3p3o2, 4t8iy, sl9o, gdol2u, zoq6ix,