What is Chemical Bonding?

The world around us is made up of microscopic units of matter called atoms. The way these atoms stick together to form substances is known as a chemical bond.

About Atoms

Each element has a unique atom made up of a specific number of protons in its nucleus known as the atomic number. Each atom also has the same number of electrons as it has protons.

Electron Shells

Electrons revolve around the nucleus of an atom. They remain in layers called shells. Each shell can only hold a certain number of electrons: the first can hold two electrons, the second has 8 electrons, the third has 18 electrons, and so on.

The Outer Shell

All atoms want a full outer shell, but the only natural elements with a full outer shell are the noble gases on the right side of the periodic table. As a result, when atoms that do not have a complete outer shell come into contact with other atoms, they tend to want to give up or accept electrons. valence electrons.

Valence Electrons

Valence electrons are the number of electrons in the outermost shell of an atom that can participate in forming chemical bonds with other atoms.

Atoms with relatively empty outer shells will want to give up electrons. For example, if an atom has 1 of the 8 possible electrons in its outer shell, it will want to give up that electron so that its outer shell is now full.

Atoms with a relatively full outer shell will want to gain more electrons to fill the outer shell. For example, an atom with 6 out of 8 electrons in its outermost shell will try to gain 2 more electrons to fill its outer shell.

Ionic Bonding

Ionic bonding occurs when one element gives up electrons (or more electrons) to another so that both elements have complete outer shells.

Example:

Here is an example showing that lithium (with 3 electrons and 1 in the outer shell) and fluorine (with 9 electrons and 7 in the outer shell) donate one electron to form LiF or lithium fluoride. This is known as an ionic bond.

Covalent Bonding

In a covalent bond, electrons are shared between atoms rather than donated so that atoms of both elements have complete outer shells. Electrons are always shared in pairs.

Example:

An example of a covalent bond is a carbon dioxide molecule. In this example, carbon has 4 out of 8 electrons in the outer shell and oxygen has 6 out of 8 electrons. By combining two oxygen atoms with one carbon atom, the atoms can share electrons so that each atom has a complete outer shell.

Interesting Facts about Chemical bonding

Because noble gases have a naturally full outer shell, they are rarely reactive.

In metallic bonds, a large number of atoms lose electrons.

Ionic bonds are mainly formed between metals located on the left side of the periodic table.

Atoms in a molecule are bound to each other by the attraction between the nucleus and the shared electrons.