Unlike the covalent bond which creates new orbitals, the ionic bond simply rearranges the electrons within the existing atomic orbitals. Also, the ionic bond is not stereospecific, but is omnidirectional. As a result, ionic systems tend to react faster because of less restrictions on the locations of the bonding atoms. Ionic bonding is the extreme case of polarity in that the large difference of electronegativities between the atoms has allowed one atoms to become fully positively charged while the second atom is fully negatively charged. Ionic Character Ionic Character refers to the amount of time that a bond exists in the ionic form.
Bonds fluctuate between existing in ionic forms and in covalent forms.
This is primarily a result of the random nature of electrons. An any given instant a pair of shared electrons may suddenly move to a specific atom and, in essence, become transferred or now exist in the ionic form. The reverse may also happen. The amount of time that a bond exists in the ionic form is measured by the percent of ionic character. The numerical value of the percent of ionic character is related to the difference in electronegativity values for the two bonded atoms.