Covalent Bonding

Covalent Bond
 Chemical bond formed by the sharing of
a pair of electrons
Orbital Overlap
 Shared pairs are actually orbitals of two
atoms overlapping
Why Covalent Bonds Exist
 Atoms share electrons when their
orbitals overlap
 When orbitals overlap, electrons are
simultaneously attracted to both nuclei
Bond Length
 As atoms come closer, increasing electron
density results in a decrease in potential
energy of system
 As atoms become very close, electrostatic
repulsion between nuclei increases
 Bond distance is a compromise between
increased overlap drawing them together and
increased repulsion pushing them apart
 There is an optimal bond distance where
energy is lowest
Model for Covalent Bonding
 Localized electron model – molecule is
composed of atoms that are bound
together by sharing pairs of electrons
 Pairs of electrons localized on one atom
are called Lone Pairs
 Electrons found in the space between
atoms are called Bonding Pairs
Lewis Structure
 Show covalent bonds between atoms
 Dots used to represent unshared pairs
of electrons
 Dash used to show electron pair shared
in a bond
 Cl2
 H2
Multiple Bonds
 Single Bond – shares 1 pair of electrons
 Double Bond – shares 2 pair
 Triple Bond – shares 3 pair
 As the number of shared pairs
increases, the distance between the
bonded atoms decreases
Drawing the Lewis Structure
 Sum up all valence electrons
 Write symbols for atoms involved so as to
show which atoms are connected
 Draw a single bond between each atom
 Complete octets on outer atoms
 Place leftover electrons on the central atom
 Use multiple bonds if central atom does not
receive an octet
Draw
 PCl3
 HCN
 ClO3-
 NO+