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Why ionic crystals are hard and brittle ...

Why ionic crystals are hard and brittle ?

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The ionic compounds are very hard and brittle. In ionic compounds the ions are rigidly held in a lattice because the positive and negative ions are strongly attracted to each and difficult to separate. But the brittleness of a compound is now easy to shift the position of atoms or ions in a lattice. If we apply a pressure on the ionic compounds the layers shifts slightly. The same charged ions in the lattice comes closer. A repulsive forces arises between same charged ions, due to this repulsions the lattice structure breaks down chemical bonding.
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