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6: Chemical Bonding I- Drawing Lewis Structures and Determining Molecular Shapes

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    25415
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    • 6.1: Morphine - A Molecular Imposter
    • 6.2: Electronegativity and Bond Polarity
      Bond polarity and ionic character increase with an increasing difference in electronegativity. The electronegativity (χ) of an element is the relative ability of an atom to attract electrons to itself in a chemical compound and increases diagonally from the lower left of the periodic table to the upper right. The Pauling electronegativity scale is based on measurements of the strengths of covalent bonds between different atoms, whereas the Mulliken electronegativity of an element is the average
    • 6.3: Writing Lewis Structures for Molecular Compounds and Polyatomic Ions
      Lewis dot symbols provide a simple rationalization of why elements form compounds with the observed stoichiometries. A plot of the overall energy of a covalent bond as a function of internuclear distance is identical to a plot of an ionic pair because both result from attractive and repulsive forces between charged entities. Lewis structures are an attempt to rationalize why certain stoichiometries are commonly observed for the elements of particular families.
    • 6.4: Resonance and Formal Charge
      Some molecules have two or more chemically equivalent Lewis electron structures, called resonance structures. Resonance is a mental exercise and method within the Valence Bond Theory of bonding that describes the delocalization of electrons within molecules. These structures are written with a double-headed arrow between them, indicating that none of the Lewis structures accurately describes the bonding but that the actual structure is an average of the individual resonance structures.
    • 6.5: Exceptions to the Octet Rule- Odd-Electron Species, Incomplete Octets, and Expanded Octets
      Following the Octet Rule for Lewis Dot Structures leads to the most accurate depictions of stable molecular and atomic structures and because of this we always want to use the octet rule when drawing Lewis Dot Structures. There are three exceptions: (1) When there are an odd number of valence electrons, (2) When there are too few valence electrons, and (3) when there are too many valence electrons
    • 6.6: Bond Energies and Bond Lengths
      Bond order is the number of electron pairs that hold two atoms together. Single bonds have a bond order of one, and multiple bonds with bond orders of two (a double bond) and three (a triple bond) are quite common. The bond with the highest bond order is both the shortest and the strongest. In bonds with the same bond order between different atoms, trends are observed that, with few exceptions, result in the strongest single bonds being formed between the smallest atoms.
    • 6.7: VSEPR Theory - The Five Basic Shapes
      The Lewis electron-pair approach described previously can be used to predict the number and types of bonds between the atoms in a substance, and it indicates which atoms have lone pairs of electrons. This approach gives no information about the actual arrangement of atoms in space, however.
    • 6.8: VSPER Theory- The Effect of Lone Pairs
      The VSEPR model can predict the structure of nearly any molecule or polyatomic ion in which the central atom is a nonmetal, as well as the structures of many molecules and polyatomic ions with a central metal atom. The VSEPR model is not a theory; it does not attempt to explain observations. Instead, it is a counting procedure that accurately predicts the three-dimensional structures of a large number of compounds, which cannot be predicted using the Lewis electron-pair approach.
    • 6.9: VSPER Theory - Predicting Molecular Geometries
    • 6.10: Molecular Shape and Polarity
      Compounds with polar covalent bonds have electrons that are shared unequally between the bonded atoms. The polarity of such a bond is determined largely by the relative electronegativites of the bonded atoms. The asymmetrical charge distribution in a polar substance produces a dipole moment, which is the product of the partial charges on the bonded atoms and the distance between them.


    6: Chemical Bonding I- Drawing Lewis Structures and Determining Molecular Shapes is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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