Which of the following has highest ionic character and why?

Question

MgCl2, CaCl2, BaCl2, BeCl2

Answer 1

BaCl2 has the highest ionic character.

The reason is that BaCl2 has the biggest difference in electronegativity, which gives ionic character. You can tell this since electronegativity increases up and to the right on the periodic table and decreases down and to the left. Since Barium is farthest down and to the left it has the lowest electronegavity which gives it the most ionic character

Answer 2

in general along the periotic table ionic character increases ,down the the group electro positive character increases .thus BaCl2 has more ionic character

Answer 3

mgcl2

Answer 4

Ionic character is a a measure of the polarity of the bond. It is calculated by subtracting the electronegativity of the more electronegative element from the lesser electronegative element. All of the molecules have the same anion (chloride) and chloride is the more electronegative of all the molecular pairs. If you want the largest difference in electronegativity you want to choose a cation with the smallest electronegativity. The cation with the smallest electronegativity is Barium, so BaCl2 has the largest difference in electronegativity; which also means that it has the highest ionic character.