Bonding
Silver bromide is an ionic compound meaning it is composed of a metal and nonmetal. The bond between silver and bromine is created through the transfer of electrons. Silver has five orbitals and 47 protons in total. There are two electrons in the first energy level, eight in the second, 18 in the third, 18 in the fourth and and one electron in the fifth level. Bromine has four orbitals and 35 protons in total. The first energy level has two electrons, the second energy level has 8, the third has 18 and the fourth energy level has seven electrons. In order for an atom to be fully satisfied, the octets must be fully occupied or be fully empty. Silver is located in group 11 which means it has one valence electron and bromine is located in group 17 which means it has seven valence electrons. In order to satisfy the octets of both these atoms, silver must transfer its valence electron to bromine. This transfer leads to bromine having a full shell with eight electrons and silver has an empty shell. Both the atoms are fully satisfied with the shells now. As you go across a period, the electronegativity increases and as you go down a group, the electronegativity decreases. Bromine is in the second highest group and in order to reach bromine, you must go across a period to almost the end. This means the bromine has a high electronegativity. Silver has a low electronegativity because you don't have to go too far across a period to reach silver. Bromine has an electronegativity of 3.0. Bromine has a high electronegativity because it has a large amount of protons which causes the the nucleus to become more attractive. When the nucleus is more attractive, there is less shielding. This also increases the ionization energy which causes an increase in ionization energy. This leads to bromine being able to remove the valence electron from silver. If an atom has a high electronegativity, it strongly attracts electrons from neighbouring atoms and can even sometimes remove them. This is why bromine can easily remove the electrons from silver. Silver has an electronegativity of 1.9. This low electronegativity is caused by the fact that there is a lot of shielding in the nucleus. A large amount of shielding causes a low electronegativity which leads to a decrease in ionization energy. Since the ionization energy is low, the electrons will be easily removed from the shell of silver. This causes the transfer of electrons from silver to bromide. This leads to the electrostatic attraction between silver and bromine because electrostatic attraction causes opposite charges to attract to each other. Silver has a charge of 1+ after transferring an electron to bromine. Bromine now has a 1- charge because it gained an electron. Since the distance between silver and bromide is small, the attractive force between them is greater.
