Chemical bonds

• Electrons need a full outer shell to be stable
• To be considered a full outer shell the element must consist of 8 electrons on the outer shell.
• Group 0 elements have a full outer shell so they are already stable.
• Other elements can become stable by forming chemical bonds by forming compounds. This allows each atom to gain a full outer shell.
• There are three types of bonds:

  • Ionic - gain or loss of electrons
  • Covalent - sharing of electrons
  • Metallic - sharing of delocalised/unfixed electrons.