Brittle Properties of Ionic Compounds? [closed]








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From my understanding, ionic compounds are brittle due to the alternating cations and anions within their lattice. Hence when stress is applied, similarly charged ions will repel causing the structure to shatter. However, by this logic, shouldn't ionic compounds also be able to come back together this way? Consider grains of table salt, why can't they join together via electrostatic forces?


Edit: I don't think the links answer my question.


