Bonding in the intermetallic compound Ni3Al is predominantly metallic. Explain why there will be little, if any, ionic bonding component. The electronegativity of nickel is about 1.8

There is very little possibility of ionic bonding.

Explanation:

First we need to understand the meaning of ionic bonding. ionic bonding means the complete transfer of valance electrons between atoms.

The electronegativity of Al is 1.5 whereas electronegativity of nickel "Ni" is 1.8-1.9. As we can see from these values of electronegativity of Al & Ni that they are closer to each other & the difference of electonegativity of these metals is very little which decreases the possibility of ionic bonding between them so it is not expected that there will be much ionic bonding. Moreover it is noticeable here that these both are metals and they prefer to give up their electrons rather to gain them.