Covalent bonding

Cards (11)

  • The number of covalent bonds an atom can form depends on its valence shell electron configuration.
  • Atoms with full outer shells have stable electronic configurations, while those with less than eight electrons in their outer shells tend to gain or lose electrons until they achieve this stability.
  • Octet rule refers to the tendency of atoms to gain a valence shell with a total of eight electrons.
  • Hybridization is the concept of mixing atomic orbitals to form new hybrid orbitals for bonding.
  • sp2 hybridisation involves three sigma bonds being formed by overlapping the hybridised orbitals with other atoms’ orbitals.
  • pi bond is two pi orbitals combine laterally the electron density of the molecular orbital is concentrated in two regions. Formed due to overlap of p orbitals alongside formation of a sigma bond.
  • Sigma bond form by the head-on combinations of atomic eorbitals where the electron density is concentrated along the bond axis.
  • Pi bonds form by the lateral combination of p-orbitals where the electron density is concentrated on opposite sides of the bond axis.
  • The shape of molecules can be predicted using VSEPR theory (Valance Shell Electron Pair Repulsion Theory).
  • Lone pairs have greater repulsive forces compared to bonding pairs because they do not share their electrons with another atom.
  • The properties and structure of a covalent bond is determined by the polarity and electronegativity of an atoms