Final answer:
Ionic compounds are formed when cations and anions combine to produce an electrically neutral substance. Ions bond through electrostatic forces, resulting in stable and commonly encountered substances like sodium chloride. The neutrality of these compounds is fundamental to their stability and prevalence in nature.
Step-by-step explanation:
Combining cations and anions creates an electrically neutral bonded compound. While cations possess overall positive charges, anions carry negative charges. In an ionic compound, these oppositely charged ions come together to form a substance where the total number of positive and negative charges are equal, resulting in electrical neutrality.
As ions such as the sodium ion (Na+) and the chloride ion (Cl−) combine, they create the common substance known as table salt or sodium chloride (NaCl). These compounds are stable because the electrostatic forces, also called ionic bonds, hold the ions in a regular lattice structure. The strength of these ionic bonds depends on the magnitude of the charged ions and the distance between them.
Ionic compounds, such as those making up the bulk of Earth's crust, demonstrate the key role of ionic bonds in forming structurally stable and neutral substances out of electrically charged entities.