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9: Chemical Bonding I- Lewis Structures and Determining Molecular Shapes

  • Page ID
    38024
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    • 9.1: Bonding Models and AIDS Drugs
    • 9.2: Types of Chemical Bonds
      Ionic vs. Covalent vs. Metallic bonding.
    • 9.3: 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.
    • 9.4: 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.
    • 9.5: 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.
    • 9.6: 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
    • 9.7: Lewis Structures
      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.
    • 9.8: 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.
    • 9.9: Exceptions to the Octet Rule
      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
    • 9.10: 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.
    • 9.11: Bonding in Metals
      Metals have several qualities that are unique, such as the ability to conduct electricity, a low ionization energy, and a low electronegativity (so they will give up electrons easily, i.e., they are cations). Their physical properties include a lustrous (shiny) appearance, and they are malleable and ductile. In the 1900's, Paul Drüde came up with the sea of electrons theory by modeling metals as a mixture of atomic cores (atomic cores = positive nuclei + inner shell of electrons) and valence ele
    • 9.E: Chemical Bonding I (Exercises)

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


    9: Chemical Bonding I- 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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