Why do ionic compounds have higher melting and boiling points despite having smaller radii?
I thought that the closer the two ions are, the larger the repulsive force, and therefore it should rather require less energy to separate them (and at further distances apart, a lower melting point is observed because there is less attraction).
This is not a question of ionic compounds vs. covalent compounds, which is covered in this question. To be clear, I am interested in the comparison of ionic compounds with ionic compounds.