Are all reactions redox reactions?
Even the reactions that we call redox often don’t completely transfer electrons. And while we’re at it, there are no 100 percent ionic bonds in compounds where someone might say that electrons are transferred to make ions. This whole transfer electrons thing is an oversimplification. When it comes right down to it, all bonding is based on the covalent bond. What we call ionic bonds are very polar covalent bonds. Even the most “ionic” of bonds (Cs-F) is 92 percent ionic, and 8 percent covalent. It’s true that many metal fluorides are very polar and act essentially like ionic bonds, but one you get away from fluorine the percent ionic character drops. Take NaCl. The bond has an ionic character of 71 percent. You see, in order to form a bond, regardless of whether the bond comes about because of a redox reaction, or not, there must be an interaction of electrons. The regions where the electrons in two different elements must overlap so that the pair of electrons is within the “sphere of i
