Submitted by [deleted] t3_11rl6dc in askscience
badatmetroid t1_jca10rt wrote
In some sense they do. Ionic chemicals are just things that are attracted together and can pack together to make a solid. They aren't "bonded" like covalent chemicals, they are just attracted. We write NaCl, but really every sodium is just attracted to the six nearest chloride ions. The same principle applies to a statically charged balloon.
But with static electricity the charges involved are much smaller and the particles are bigger. In salt you have single atoms with missing (or extra) electrons. In static electricity the particles are huge (10^17 or so atoms of it's dust) and the charge is much smaller: like hundreds or millions of elections meaning the charge to mass ratio is 10^10 less. (these numbers are of the top of my head, but the principle is correct)
So lower charge + higher mass = weaker bond.
They also aren't consistently sized, so you can't get the consistent packing of particles like in a salt.
Mord42 t1_jd0ohgs wrote
A cat with a balloon stuck to its fur is just a really really big salt.
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