Recently, I saw a video about sodium hydride and it saw it was made up with $\ce{Na+}$ ions and $\ce{H-}$ ions. My problem is: aren't all hydrogen ions positive? And in what conditions can $\ce{H-}$ occur?
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4Sodium and most other metals have a lower electronegativity than hydrogen. Thus, in metal hydrides the metal transfers an electron to hydrogen leading to a negatively charged hydride ion, $\ce{H-}$, and a positively charged metal ion. – Philipp Dec 06 '14 at 01:29
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It's negative simply because it has more electrons (2) than protons (1), so the main question is how it can occur. – David Richerby Dec 06 '14 at 11:49
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It seems likely that you'd be interested in this; there are actually negative ions of the alkali metals as well, alkalide ions. – Jason Patterson Jan 03 '15 at 05:04
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And in what conditions can $\ce{H^{−}}$ occur?
In any phase. The hydride ion however doesn't stick around for long in water since it's such a strong base. First, hydrogen isn't that electronegative to start with, so tacking on an extra electron isn't helping with its stability. Second, combination with an hydrogen proton, $\ce{H+}$, is highly entropically favorable because the product, $\ce{H2}$, is a gas.
The $pK_a$ of $\ce{H2}$ has been estimated to be ~35 so that speaks a lot to the strength of the hydride ion as a base.
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