Peer Reflection:

My peers gave me great advice on how to better my essay. One advice was to take out some
rhetorical questions I had originally in my atoms section because she said that it was colloquial
when it should feel more like a wiki page. I agreed with her and took it out. I felt like that made a
big difference in setting the tone of my paper was. The second person mentioned that I could
make the flow of my essay better by grammatically changing some things. For example, my intro
I had introduced the four forces but using commas and she suggested to use a colon and then
state the four sources. I felt like this did flow a lot better. I received from both that the language
might be too scientific and that I should explain more or add a glossary to define terms. I decided
to explain more within my essay because I could not figure out how to add a glossary on the side
and I did not want to add it to the end of the paper because I know I would not want to go back
and forth trying to define words when reading an essay. Overall, very helpful advice and I
enjoyed the critique because I felt like it made my essay better.

Polarity

Polarity is one of the fundamental physical properties that determine how molecules will

interact with the environment and each other. These polar interactions between molecules are

known as intermolecular forces (Wade, 2017). Polarity is composed of electric static charges

throughout a molecule that results in a concentration of positive and/or negative charge. This

concentration of a positive or negative charge in a specific area of a molecule is known as a

partial charge and is represented by the delta sign (± δ) (Wade, 2017).

There are four types of intermolecular forces: ionic, hydrogen bonding, dipole-dipole

interactions, and Van der Waals dispersion forces. These forces are related to the attraction and

repulsion of atoms. Ionic bonds are defined as two ions coming together to create a bond. Ions

are atoms that have a full positive and/or negative charge. Hydrogen bonding is the electrostatic

force of attraction between partially positive charged hydrogen atoms in a bond and other

partially negative charged Atoms. Dipole-dipole interactions is like hydrogen bonding except it

is the attraction of the partial charges of molecules instead of hydrogens. Van der Waals
dispersion forces is the weakest of the four forces and is a temporary attraction between very

electronegative atoms (Wade, 2017).

Electronegativity is a special property atoms have that allows them to attract electrons

from other atoms and greatly influences polarity. Another factor that affects polarity is the type

of angle between bonds, which is called molecular geometry. The bond geometry and

electronegativity of the atoms in the bond will impact intermolecular forces (Wade, 2017).

Molecular geometry is important when determining the polarity of a molecular bond due

to the possibility of charges canceling out. When the electronegativity of the atoms in a bond are

similar, or the geometry of the molecule is perfectly symmetrical then it is considered a nonpolar

bond. A significant difference in the electronegativity of atoms contained in a bond and an

unsymmetrical molecule shape, will result in a polar bond (Wade, 2017). Polarity plays a vital

role in our lives as it is the fundamental reasons for chemical reactions. Everyday our bodies

undergo many chemical reactions to function.

Table of contents
1. Atoms
2. Electronegativity
3. Molecular Geometry
4. Real life examples
Atoms

Atoms are the smallest part of an element from the periodic table that can exist alone and

can take part in a chemical change (What is an atom?, 2022). It is considered the basic building

block of all matter in the universe and itself is made of subatomic particles like the positively

charged protons, the neutral neutrons, and negatively charged electrons (Reich, 2021). Protons

and neutrons are together at the center of an atom called a nucleus, much like the sun is at the

center of our galaxy. Electrons are like the planets

circling around the sun. Although, electrons do not

actually occupy a specific point in space, but rather move

around the nucleus in levels of increasing energy and is

therefore impossible to know the speed and location of

Figure 1. A hydrogen atom with the
nucleus at the very center. The an electron at the same time (Rout, 2022). Figure 1 is
green dots represent the probability
of where electrons are located showing areas of a hydrogen atom where the probability
(Reich, 2021).
an electron’s location is high.

What we can figure out about electrons is how many there are since this is based off

exactly how many protons an atom has. If an atom has six protons, then it will have six electrons.

More importantly though, we can determine how many valence electrons there are. Valence

electrons orbit the furthest away from the nucleus and have higher energy making them attracted

to other atom’s nuclei (Rout, 2022). For this reason, these electrons play a vital role in how and

why chemical reactions occur. When a chemical reaction occurs a transfer of valence electrons

between the atoms results in a sharing of electrons, creating covalent bonds (Reich, 2021). These

bonds are what make up molecules and molecules are what make up you, me, and everything
else. The way these molecules interact with each other is dependent on the polarity of their

bonds.

Electronegativity

Electronegativity of an atom is a measure of how much an atom can attract electrons (or

electron density) towards itself (Libretexts, 2020). It is a main property that affects the polarity

within molecules. All atoms have the ability to attract electrons, but some attract more than

others giving them a larger electronegativity value. The trends on the periodic table from figure

2, show that electronegativity becomes stronger from left to right and from down to up with

fluorine being the most electronegative atom and having a strength of 3.98 (Learning, n.d.).

The noble gasses do not possess any pull of electrons since they have a maximum

number of electrons in their valence level. This means they are very stable and do not react easily

with other atoms. We can determine mathematically the polarity of a molecular bond by

referring to the electronegative value for each atom. For example, using figure 2, if we wanted to

know the polarity of a single hydrocarbon (CH), we would obtain the electronegativity value

from the periodic table of carbon, 2.55, and subtract hydrogen’s value of 2.20. This would give

us a value of 0.35 putting this molecule in the pure covalent bond type or nonpolar bond type. A

nonpolar bond means there are no concentrations of positive or negative charges, but rather an

equal distribution of electrical charges across the molecule (Learning, n.d.).

An example of a nonpolar substance would be an oil, which has long chains of CH.

Another example using carbon monoxide (CO) would be to obtain oxygen’s value of 3.44 and

subtract carbon’s value of 2.55, giving us a difference of 0.89. This is in the category of polar
covalent bond. Polar covalent means there is an uneven distribution of partial charges within

bonds. This makes these molecules more reactive compared to nonpolar ones.

Periodic Table

Figure 2. On the top is a periodic table showing the trends of electronegativity. The bottom is a chart
breakdown of the numerical values that correspond to polarity. Pure covalent means nonpolar and
polar covalent means polar (Learning, n.d.).

Lastly, an example of an ionic bond would be sodium chloride (NaCl) or table salt. From

figure 2 we would obtain chlorine’s value of 3.16 and subtract sodium’s value of 0.93. This

would equal 2.23 and put this molecule at an ionic bond. Ionic bonds have full electric charges

and create strong bonds (Learning, n.d.).

Molecular Geometry

All molecules when formed will have a certain molecular structure which can also be

called its molecular geometry. The geometry plays a key role in whether molecules will be polar

or nonpolar. This has less to do with the difference in electronegativity and more to do with the

angle of bonds. When determining the

geometry, we must also keep in mind

the type of atoms within the molecule,

what the central atom is, if the

molecule is symmetrical, and if there

are any electrons that are unshared.

Figure 3 shows the ten classifications

for the type of shape a molecule can

take: linear, trigonal bipyramidal,

bent, tetrahedral, trigonal pyramidal,

Figure 3. The ten shapes a molecule can take that will seesaw, T-shaped, octahedral, square
affect its polarity and effects its reactivity with other
molecules (Socratic, 2016). pyramidal, and square planar

(Libretexts, 2020). An example of a molecule we encounter every day is water. We know water

is composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (H2O). It also contains four electrons

that are unbonded, which can be grouped as pairs, so two groups of electrons. These groups

along with the other atoms in the molecule will affect the overall polarity. Figure 3 shows the

shape of water and the angle it has.

 Water has a geometry of bent since the central atom, oxygen, has two lone pairs of

electrons and contains two hydrogen atoms. Another molecule we encounter daily is carbon

dioxide. This molecule also contains a total of three atoms, but its central atom is carbon and

there are two oxygen atoms connected through double bonds. We know the carbon atom contains

four valence electrons so there are no lone pairs on the carbon. This creates a linear geometry.

The difference between these two structures is truly little, but the type of polarity is vastly

different due to the angle at which the atoms are placed. The water molecule will be polar

(reactive), and the carbon dioxide molecule will be nonpolar (unreactive).

Important Examples

As previously mentioned, water is one of the most common substances that we encounter

daily and vital for our survival. What makes water so special is its polarity, which allows it to

undergo hydrogen bonding. Hydrogen bonding is the reason water can react with so many other

substances. This bonding gives it unique physical and chemical properties that no other

substances in the universe has. For example, it is able to absorb heat more efficiently than almost

any other substance and due to this, the oceans are able to keep Earth’s temperature cool.

Another unique property of water is how its solid form (ice) is less dense than its liquid form.

This is how ice sheets can form on the ocean rather than sink. Without polarity water would not

have its special properties. Many other examples that are important to everyday life are chemical

reactions, physiological processes, and biological processes. These would cease to exist without

polarity and therefore life itself would not exist (Xiao et al., 2021). For example, during

embryonic development and cell division, polarity is crucial for producing various shapes of
cells that allow diverse types of functions to be fulfilled as shown from figure 4 (Wei & Wen,

2021).

Figure 4. An example of cell shape changes that need to occur for life to exist. Mitosis
is cellular division of all cells in the body. Meiosis would be the equivalent, but for sex
cells (Rands, 2016). The cells divide due to differences in polarity.
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Reich, H., 2021. A better way to picture atoms. [online] Youtube.com. Available at:
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What molecular geometry do you have if you have one lone pair and two bonding electron
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