Chemical Bonding

Chemical bonding is the relationship between atoms in a molecule. These chemical bonding have strong intramolecular connections like ionic and covalent bonds. But what is a chemical bond in simple words? Well, it is any interaction that results in the combination of atoms into molecules, crystals, etc. When an atom reaches another atom, its electrons and the nuclei connect each other and scatter themselves in which the total energy is least. Let’s discuss chemical bonding below. 

Chemical bond definition

The chemical bond definition can be defined as the process of combining two or more ions by the process of redistribution of the electrons which gives rise to a stable electronic state for each atom. Chemical Bonding can be understood as a combination of two or more atoms to form a bond. Chemical bond forms when an atom loses or takes electrons from its outer shells which forms electrostatic attractions. To attain this, every atom makes its copy or duplicate by taking the nearest gas electronic arrangement. It generally occurs by making composite relations between the particles. There are three ways through which a particle can make chemical bonds. 

They are:

1. Taking an electron from another atom
2. Transferring an electron to a different atom
3. Losing one electron to a different atom

Understanding Chemical Bonding

To have the perfect idea about chemical bonding, we need to study atoms and it’s structure. Atoms are generally some units of a matter which is also the smallest unit to stabilise the properties of their element. Atoms contain a nucleus in it’s centre which contains positively charged protons along with some neutral units called neutrons. Atoms have some outer shells which are filled with negatively charged particles called electrons. These outer shells are the parts which are involved in the chemical bonding. There are certain terminology, 

• Ions- means the atoms which have gained or lost electrons. 
• Cation- means an atom that has a positive charge and has lost an electron. 
• Anion- means an atom which is negatively charged and has gained electrons.

Types Of Chemical Bonds

Chemical bonds form when electrons in the outer shell of an atom are shared or lost. Chemical bonds generally are of four types, that are:

1. Ionic or electrovalent bond
2. Covalent bond
3. Hydrogen bond
4. Metallic bonds

Let’s discuss them in detail. 

1.Ionic or electrovalent bonds

These are the bonds that are made when an atom surrenders or accepts electrons from another atom. These bonds take place in the case of nonmetals and metal atoms. It helps both the atoms from different groups gain an outer shell total of eight electrons. In such cases, atoms lose one negative charge and gain a positive charge. These charges permit the atoms to be together thought-out the electrostatic attraction. For example, sodium (Na) and chlorine(Cl) combine together to make crystals of sodium chloride (NaCl) which is the common salt used in our day-to-day life. 

2.Covalent Bonds – 

These bonds take place when the electrons are shared between two atoms. These bonds take place mainly between nonmetals. The atoms involved in this bond have the same electron desires which are also known as the same electronegativity. 

Therefore they share the electrons rather than losing or accepting them. The atoms in this bond only share electrons till both of their outer shells are filled with eight electrons. They can be both polar and nonpolar each at a time. So in the case of a nonpolar covalent bond, the two atoms have the same electronegativity. 

An example of this bond can be, an atom of carbon(C) merge with two atoms of Oxygen(O) which results in a double covalent bond, Carbon Dioxide(CO2). Another example can be, two atoms of iodine combined together to make iodine gas. 

3.Hydrogen Bond – 

Hydrogen Bonds are the chemical bonds between a hydrogen atom and an electronegative atom. But this is neither a covalent nor an ionic bond. It comes under the category of dipole-dipole attraction of molecules. 

The process under this bond involves a hydrogen atom combining with a lot of electro-negative atoms which form positive charges which are then ultimately attracted towards negatively charged atoms which then form the hydrogen bond. An example of this type of bond can be hydrogen fluoride (HF) and ammonia(NH3), the hydrogen bond takes place between the hydrogen of one of the molecules and carbon or nitrogen of another molecule. 

4.Metallic bond – 

Metallic bonds are the force or energy that make the atoms hold at a place in a metallic substance. These substances have fully packed atoms with a large number of electrons in the outer shell of every atom of the substance. This is the reason why the valence electrons move from one to another atom which is called non-localization of electrons. An example of this can be, sodium, wire made up of copper, aluminium foil, magnesium, etc.

Conclusion

The above guide covers each and everything about chemical bonding, right from chemical bond definition to types of chemical bonds