COVALENT BONDING

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WHY DO ATOMS FORM COVALENT BONDS?

 Recall that atoms with 5, 6 and 7 electrons will gain electrons to

form stable octets.

 This type of bonding takes place in non-metals. Non metals will

not give up their electrons; recall that metals give up their
valence electrons to form cations.

 Non-metals will therefore share electrons to obtain a full shell of

electrons (Octet rule).
 COVALENT BONDING
 Covalent bonds are formed when atoms share a pair of
electrons.

 These bonds are formed by non metals. Examples of non

metals include: Chlorine, Oxygen, Fluorine.

 The sharing of electrons can be shown by dot and cross

diagrams.
 COVALENT BONDING

 Each non-metal atom shares a number of electrons so that each

atom appears to have the electronic configuration of the nearest
noble gas in the Periodic Table.

 The shared electrons orbit around the nuclei of both atoms

sharing them.

 Each shared pair of electrons will constitute a covalent bond.

 The sharing of one, two or three pairs of electrons are known

as single, double or triple bonds respectively.
 EXAMPLE: FORMATION OF CHLORINE

 Each chlorine atom has 7 electrons on their valence shell.

 According to the octet rule, they need to have 8 electrons to

achieve stability.

 Lets have a look at the valence shells of each chlorine atom.

COVALENT BONDING IN CHLORINE

Each chlorine has 3 pairs of electrons along with a single electron.

Each chlorine will contribute their single electron to the electron
pair in the covalent bond.
DOT AND CROSS DIAGRAM SHOWING THE
FORMATION OF A CHLORINE MOLECULE

 Lets look at the bonding between two chlorine atoms

 DOT AND CROSS DIAGRAM FOR
CHLORINE
The dash sign between the chlorine atoms in the molecule represent a pair of
electrons. Each electron initially came from each chlorine atom. In addition, one
share pair of electrons represents one single bond.
HYDROGEN CHLORIDE EXAMPLE

In this molecule each atom has a filled valence shell. Chlorine will now
have an octet ( 8 electrons) while hydrogen will have 2. Recall that the
valence shell of hydrogen is can hold 2 electrons not 8.
COVALENT BONDS INVOLVING MORE
THAN ONE PAIR OF ELECTRONS

 Atoms can share more than one pair of electrons.

 Some atoms can share two pairs of electrons (double bonds) as

well as three pairs of electrons (triple bonds).
 BONDING IN CARBON DIOXIDE

Here we see the sharing of two pairs of electrons between each carbon atom and
oxygen.
 BONDING IN CARBON DIOXIDE
 Carbon Dioxide will therefore look like this:

Recall that each single line represents one shared pair of electrons. Two
lines will therefore represent two pairs of shared electrons or a “double
bond”.
 COVALENT DOT AD CROSS DIAGRAMS
PRACTICE

 Draw dot and cross diagrams for the following:

 Water
 Ammonia

 Hydrogen

 Fluorine

 Hydrogen Bromide