Utterly Confused About Intermolecular Forces

For each of the substances the possible answers are ionic bonding, covalent bonding, metallic bonding, hydrogen bonding, dipole-dipole force, or London force. Forces, such as ion-dipole forces and ion-induced dipole forces, are not choices because these require the presence of two or more substances. For example, sodium chloride cannot utilize either of these two forces, but sodium chloride in water can. (Sodium chloride in water exhibits ion-dipole forces.) 

Each of the eight substances will exhibit London forces since they are present in everything containing electrons. London forces are only the strongest type of intermolecular force if there are no other attractions present. The most convenient method of analyzing this problem is to leave consideration of London forces to the last. 

We can begin with any of the intermolecular forces other than London forces. It is usually easiest to begin with the normal bonds (covalent, ionic, and metallic). Bonds only occur in specific circumstances. For example, metallic bonds only occur in metals or metal alloys. The only metal or alloy in the seven substance fist is iron. For this reason, the strongest intermolecular force in iron is metallic bonding. 

Very few materials utilize covalent bonding as an important intermolecular force. The best-known examples are silicon dioxide, Si02, graphite, C, and diamond, C. One of these three common examples, diamond, is in our question. Therefore, the strongest intermolecular force in diamond is covalent bonding. 

Ionic bonding is present in compounds containing a metal and a nonmetal or in a compound containing one or more polyatomic ions. There are a few exceptions to this generalization, but these usually do not appear in this type of question. An ionic substance must contain at least two different elements, so we 

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