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6: Lewis Structures

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    211180
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    • 6.1: Types of Chemical Bonds
      Ionic vs. Covalent vs. Metallic bonding.
    • 6.2: Representing Valance Electrons with Dots
      Lewis dot symbols can be used to predict the number of bonds formed by most elements in their compounds. Lewis electron dot symbols, which consist of the chemical symbol for an element surrounded by dots that represent its valence electrons, grouped into pairs often placed above, below, and to the left and right of the symbol. The structures reflect the fact that the elements in period 2 and beyond tend to gain, lose, or share electrons to reach a total of 8 valence electrons in their compounds.
    • 6.3: Ionic Bonding
      The amount of energy needed to separate a gaseous ion pair is its bond energy. The formation of ionic compounds are usually extremely exothermic. The strength of the electrostatic attraction between ions with opposite charges is directly proportional to the magnitude of the charges on the ions and inversely proportional to the internuclear distance.
    • 6.4: Covalent Bonding- Lewis Structure
      The strength of a covalent bond depends on the overlap between the valence orbitals of the bonded atoms. 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. In closely related compounds with bonds between the same kinds of atoms, the bond with the highest bond order is both the shortest and the strongest.
    • 6.5: 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

    Thumbnail: Ball and Stick model for Methane (\(\ce{CH4}\)). (CC BY-SA-NC; anonymous by request).


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