Friday, March 1, 2013

Basic Concepts of Chemical Bonding

Valence Electrons are the outer shell electrons of an atom.  They're the electrons that participate in chemical bonding.
Protip: A super easy way to check what an element's valence electrons are is to look at the group it belongs to.  Nitrogen, for example, belongs to group 5A and has five electrons.  

Types of Bonds:

The Ionic Bond is the electrostatic force that holds ions together in an ionic compound.

A Covalent Bond is a chemical bond in which two or more electrons are shared by two atoms.

Polar Covalent Bond or Polar Bond is a covalent bond with greater electron density around one of the two atoms.  The atom with a greater electron density is called an electron rich region.  Likewise, the atom with a lesser electron density is referred to as an electron poor region.


Bond Lengths:

1.) Single bond - two atoms share one pair of electrons
2.) Double bond - two atoms share two pairs of electrons
3.) Triple bond - two atoms share three pairs of electrons


Triple bond < Double bond < Single bond
  • C-O is 143
  • C=O is 121
  • C-C is 154
  • C=C is 133


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