Question

Will Magnesium form covalent bonds? why? what are the criterias to form covalent and ionic bonds?

Answer 1

Yes Magnesium does form covalent bonds. Actually in the formation of organometallic covalent compounds it forms polar covalent bond which is very close to ionic bond.For Eg : in grignard reagent Mg-C bond is polar covalent and electronegativity diffrence is 1.24 .
We know for the formation of
Non-polar covalent = 0.0-0.4 is the electronegativity difference.
Polar Covalent = 0.4-1.7
ionic = electronegativity difference >1.7