does lithium form ionic compounds or covalent compounds?
Therefore on both counts, beryllium holds onto its electrons more strongly than lithium. The end result is that whereas lithium can form ionic bonds, beryllium cannot. What actually happens when beryllium tries to bond with a nonmetal? Naively, you might postulate that beryllium and chlorine would form the ionic compound BeCl2. Usually, chlorine (a very electronegative element) would pull the valence electrons of a metal so strongly toward it that the electrons would effectively transfer from the metal to chlorine; the resulting cation and anion would form an ionic compound.