Types on bonding

Types of Bonding

Sophie Shrimpton

Covalent bonds

• A covalent bond is formed when a pair of electrons is shared between two atoms. These shared electrons are found in the outer shells of the atoms. Generally, Each atom contributes one electron to the shared pair of electrons.
• Only nonmetals can form covalent bonds, because their outer shells are close enough to being full that they join with other nonmetals so that the shared electron pairs are enough to "fill" their valence shell. Therefore creating a stable atom.
• Some physical properties of covalent bonds include lower melting points and electrical conductivity compared to ionic compounds. this is due to the lack of free electrons.
• You can get a single, double or triple covalnet bond. In single bond, 2 electrons are shared, in double bond 4 electrons are shared and in triple bond 6 electrons are shared. The more covalent bonds there are the high the stable and strenth are.

Ionic Bonds

• An ionic bond is formed by strong electrostatic interactions between ions and the complete transfer of some electrons from one atom to another.
• In ionic bonds, the metal loses electrons to become a positively charged cation, whereas the nonmetal accepts those electrons to become a negatively charged anion.
• Ionic bonds usually occur between metal and nonmetal ions.
• Due to the strength of the ionic bond, ionic compounds have high melting and boiling point.
• An ionic compound can only conduct electricity if its melted to a liquid or dissolved in water to form aqueous solution.

Metallic bonds

• Metals form giant structures in which electrons in the outer shells of the metal atoms are free to move. The metallic bond is the force of attraction between these free-moving (delocalised) electrons and positive metal ions.
• Metallic bonds are only created for the bonding between metal atoms.
• Metallic compounds have many different properties. Due to the delocalised electrons they can conduct electricity and heat. They all have very high boiling and meltig points, are malleable, ductile, and sometimes even magnetic.

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