Chemical Bonding

• A group of atoms which exists together as one species

having characteristic properties is called A Molecule

• The attractive force which holds various constituents

(atoms, ions, etc.) together in different chemical species
is called A Chemical Bond
Theories explaining formation of chemical bond:

• Kössel-Lewis approach
• Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR)
Theory
• Valence Bond (VB) Theory
• Molecular Orbital (MO) Theory.
 Kossel-lewis
Approach
Lewis postulated that atoms achieve the stable octet when
they are linked by chemical bonds.

• In Sodium and Chlorine bonding can happen by the transfer of

an electron from sodium to chlorine thereby giving the Na+ and
Cl- ions
• In the case of other molecules like Cl 2, H2, F2 etc., bonding is
formed by the sharing of a pair of electrons between the atoms
 Lewis
Symbols:
• In the formation of a molecule, only the outer shell
electrons take part in chemical combination and they are
known as valence electrons

• These valence electrons are represented by lewis

symbols.
• The Lewis symbols for the elements of second period
are

• The dots represents the number of valence electrons

which helps to calculate the group valence of the
element
Kossel proposed the following in relation to chemical bonding:

• In the periodic table, the highly electronegative halogens

and the highly electropositive alkali metals are separated
by the noble gases.
• The formation of a negative ion from a halogen atom and a
positive ion from an alkali metal atom is associated with
the gain and loss of an electron by the respective atoms.
• The negative and positive ions thus formed attain stable
noble gas electronic configurations and these ions are
stabilized by electrostatic attraction
Formation of NaCl from sodium and chlorine

Na Na+ + e-
Cl + e- Cl-

• The bond formed, due to the electrostatic attraction

between the positive and negative ions was termed as the
electrovalent bond.
• Electrovalence is equal to the number of unit charges on
the ion
 Octet Rule
According to electronic theory of chemical bonding, atoms can
combine either by transfer of valence electrons from one atom
to another or by sharing of valence electrons in order to have an
octet in their valence shells is known as Octet Rule.
Covalent Bond
• The Lewis-Langmuir theory can be understood by
considering the formation of the chlorine molecule
Cl2 .

• The Cl2 molecule is formed by the sharing of a pair

of electrons between the two chlorine atoms. Each
chlorine atom contributing one electron to the
 The important conditions of covalent
bond:
• Each bond is formed as a result of sharing of an electron pair
between the atoms.
• Each combining atom contributes at least one electron to the
shared pair.
• The combining atoms attain the outer-shell noble gas
configurations as a result of the sharing of electrons.
• By sharing of an electron pair by two atoms covalent bond is
formed.
Formation of covalent bond in water and carbon tetrachloride

When two atoms share one electron pair they are said to be
joined by a single covalent bond
 Double Bond

If two atoms share two pairs of electrons, the covalent bond

between them is called a double bond.

Eg: In the carbon dioxide molecule, we have two double bonds

between the carbon and oxygen atoms
 Triple Bond
 
 The Lewis Structures

The Lewis dot structures can be written from the following

steps
• The total number of electrons required for the structures
are obtained by adding the valence electrons of the
combining atoms.
• For anions, each negative charge mean addition of one
electron
• For cations, each positive charge would result in
subtraction of one electron from the total number of
valence electrons
• It is easy to distribute the total number of electrons between
the atoms in proportion to the total bonds from the chemical
symbols of the combining atoms
• The least electronegative atom occupies the central position
in the molecule/ion
• After accounting the shared pairs of electrons for single
bonds, the remaining electron pairs are utilized for multiple
bonding or remain as the lone pairs
 lone pairs F F lone pairs
Single covalent bond

Single Covalent Bond

lone pairs F F lone pairs
Formal Charge
The formal charge of an atom in a polyatomic molecule or ion is
defined as the difference between the number of valence
electrons of that atom in an isolated or free state and the number
of electrons assigned to that atom in the Lewis structure

=
 Consider the ozone molecule O3

The Lewis structure of O3 is given as

The atoms have been numbered as 1, 2 and 3.

The formal charge on the central O(atom 1) is
6 - 2 - ½(6) = +1
The formal charge on the end O(atom 2) is
6 - 4 - ½(4) = 0
The formal charge on the end O(atom 3) is
6 - 6 - ½(2) = -1

Hence,
O3 molecule along with the formal charges is
Limitations of the Octet Rule

The Incomplete Octet Of The Central Atom:

The number of electrons surrounding the central atom is less than

eight

Eg: LiCl, BeH2, BCl3

Odd-electron molecules:

An odd number of electrons like nitric oxide(NO) and nitrogen

dioxide(NO2 ), the octet rule is not satisfied for all the atoms
The expanded octet:

In these elements there are more than eight valence electrons

around the central atom which is termed as expanded octet.
Eg: PF5, SF6, H2SO4

It does not explain the relative stability of the molecules being

totally silent about the energy of a molecule.
 Ionic or Electrovalent
Bond
Formation of ionic bond depends on the following:
• The formation of the positive and negative ions from neutral
atom
• The arrangement of the positive and negative ions in the solid
The formation of a positive ion involves removal of
electron(s) from the neutral atom(i.e., ionization)
M(g) M+(g) + e-
The negative ion involves the addition of
electron(s) to
the neutral atom
X(g) + e- X-(g); Electron gain enthalpy
• Ionic bond is formed between elements having low ionization
enthalpies and high negative value of electron gain enthalpy.
• Ionic compounds are arranged in three-dimensional with
cations and anions held together in crystalline state.

• The crystal structure of sodium chloride, NaCl (rock salt) is

The ionization enthalpy for Na+(g) is 495.8 kJ mol-1
The electron gain enthalpy for Cl-(g) is 348.7 kJ mol-1
Thus sum of the two energies is 147.1kJ mol-1, which is more than
the energy compensated for lattice formation of NaCl

Thus the stability of an ionic compound is provided by its

enthalpy of lattice formation and not simply by achieving
octet of electrons around the ionic species in gaseous
state.
 Lattice Enthalpy

• It is the energy required to separate one mole of a solid ionic

compound into gaseous ions.
• The lattice enthalpy of NaCl is 788 KJ mol-1 , which is required
for the separation of solid NaCl into one mole of Na+(g) and
one mole of Cl-(g)
• Hence this process involves attractive forces(between
opposite charges) and repulsive forces(between like charges)
between ions.
 Bond
Bond Length Parameters
Bond length is defined as the equilibrium distance between the
nuclei of two bonded atoms in a molecule.

R= rA + rB
Where R is the bond length
RA and RB are the covalent

radii of atoms A and B respectively

 Bond lengths are measured by :
• Spectroscopic technique
• X-ray diffraction technique
• Electron-diffraction technique

Covalent
Radius
The covalent radius is measured approximately as the radius of
an atom’s core which is in contact with the core of an adjacent
atom in a bonded situation.
 Vander waals radius of oxygen

• The Vander Waals radius represents the overall size of the

atom which includes its valence shell in a nonbonded situation
• The Vander Waals radius is half of the distance between two
similar atoms in separate molecules in a solid.
Bond Angle

The angle between the orbitals containing bonding electron pairs

around the central atom in a molecule/complex ion
Bond Enthalpy

• The amount of energy required to break one mole of bonds of

a particular type between two atoms in a gaseous state.
• Larger the bond dissociation enthalpy, stronger will be the bond
in the molecule
• The unit of bond enthalpy is kJ mol-1

The H - H bond enthalpy in hydrogen molecule is

H2(g) H(g) + H(g) ; ∆aH- = 435.8 kj mol-1

Similarly,
O2(g) O(g) +O(g) ; ∆aH- = 498 kJ mol-1
N2(g) N(g) + N(g) ; ∆aH- = 946 kJ mol-1
HCl(g) H(g) + Cl(g) ; ∆aH- = 431 kJ mol-1
Bond Order
• The number of bonds between the two atoms in a molecule
is given as Bond Order
• The bond order in H2 (single shared electron pair) is
1
• The bond order in O2 (two shared electron pairs) is 2

• The bond order in N2 (three shared electron pairs) is

3
• Increase in bond order, bond enthalpy increases and bond
length decreases.
• Isoelectronic molecules and ions have identical bond orders
Eg: F2 and O22- have bond order 1
Resonance Structures

• When a single Lewis structure cannot describe a molecule

accurately, a number of structures with similar energy, positions
of nuclei, bonding and non-bonding pairs of electrons are taken
as the canonical structures of the hybrid which describes the
molecule accurately.

Thus for O3 , the two canonical structures or resonance structures

are

Thus III structure represents the structure of O3 more accurately.

This is also called resonance hybrid
Thus the energy of the O3 resonance hybrid is lower than either of
the two canonical forms I and II
 
Polarity of Bonds
In general there are no bond or a compound with completely
covalent or ionic.
Nonpolar covalent bond:
Electrons are shared between atoms are equally attracted by
atoms
with same electronegativity values.
Examples: N2 , Br2
Polar covalent bond:
Electrons are shared between different nonmetal atoms
Example: HF
In HF molecule the electrons shared between the two atoms are
attracted
more towards fluorine; since the electronegativity of fluorine is
greater
than that of hydrogen
 Dipole Moment
It is defined as the product of the magnitude of the charge and the
distance between the centres of positive and negative charge

Dipole moment (µ) = charge (Q) X distance of separation (r)

• Units are Debye(D)
• one D = 3.33564 X 10-30 C m
 Dipole moment of HF is represented as

The arrow indicates the direction of the shift of electron density in

the molecule
 
 
  

 
 The Valence Shell Electron Pair
Repulsion (VSEPR) Theory
Main postulates of VSEPR theory are:
• The shape of a molecule depends upon the number of
valence shell electron pairs (bonded or unbonded) around the
central atom.
• Pairs of electrons in the valence shell repel one another since
their electron are negatively charged.
• These pairs of electrons tend to occupy such positions in
space that minimize repulsion and thus maximize distance
between them.
• The valence shell is taken as a sphere with the electron pairs
localizing on the spherical surface at maximum distance from
one another.
• A multiple bond is treated as if it is a single electron pair and
the two or three electron pairs of a multiple bond are treated
as a single super pair.
• Where two or more resonance structures can represent a
molecule, the VSEPR model is applicable to any such
  structure
 The repulsive interaction of electron pairs decrease in the order:

Lone pair Vs Lone Lone pair Vs Bond pair Vs Bond

pair repulsion Bond pair pair repulsion
repulsion
Geometry of Molecules in which the Central Atom has No Lone Pair of
Electrons
 Valence Bond Theory
Valence bond theory was introduced by Hitler and London (1927) and
developed further by Pauling.

• When the two atoms are at large distance from each other, there is no
interaction between them. As these two atoms approach each other,
there is attractive and repulsive forces.
Consider two hydrogen atoms A and B approaching each other having
nuclei NA and NB electrons present in them are represented by eA and
eB
• Nucleus of one atom and its own electron that is NA – eA and NB - eB

• Nucleus of one atom and electron of other atom i.e., NA – eB and NB – eA

Similarly repulsive forces arise between
• Electrons of two atoms like eA and eB

• Nuclei of two atoms NA and NB

Orbital Overlap Concept

When two hydrogen atoms are near then their atomic orbitals
undergo partial interpenetration. This partial merging of atomic
orbitals is called Overlapping of Atomic Orbitals

Greater the overlap, stronger is the bond formed between two

atoms.
Overlapping of Atomic Orbitals
 Types of Overlapping and Nature of Covalent
Bonds

The covalent bond is classified into two types depending upon the
types of overlapping. They are
• Sigma(σ) Bond
• Pi(π) Bond
 Sigma(σ)
Bond
This bond is formed by the end to end (head-on) overlap of
bonding orbitals along the internuclear axis. This is called as head
on overlap or axial overlap.
• S-S Overlapping: Overlap of two half filled s-
orbitals

• S-P Overlapping: Overlap occurs between half filled s-orbitals of

one atom and half filled p-orbitals of another atom

• P–P Overlapping: Overlap takes place between half filled p-

orbitals of the two approaching atoms
 Pi(π)
Bond
π bond is formed when the atomic orbitals overlap in such
a way that their axes remain parallel to each other and
perpendicular to the internuclear axis
Strength of Sigma and pi
Bonds
• The strength of a bond depends upon the extent of
overlapping.
• In case of sigma bond, the overlapping of orbitals takes place
to a larger extent. Hence, sigma bond is stronger as
compared to the pi bond where the extent of overlapping
occurs to a smaller extent.
• Pi bond between two atoms is formed in addition to a sigma
bond.
• It is always present in the molecules containing multiple bond
 Hybridisatio
The process ofnintermixing of two or more atomic orbitals of
slightly different energies so as to redistribute their energies,
resulting in the formation of new set of orbitals of equivalent
energies and shape.
Features of Hybridisation:
• The number of hybrid orbitals is equal to the number of the
atomic orbitals that get hybridised
• The hybridised orbitals are always equivalent in energy and
shape
• The hybrid orbitals are more effective in forming stable bonds
than the pure atomic orbitals
• These hybrid orbitals are directed in space in some preferred
direction to have minimum repulsion between electron pairs and
Important conditions for
hybridisation
• The orbitals present in the valence shell of the atom are
hybridised.
• The orbitals undergoing hybridisation should have almost equal
energy.
• Promotion of electron is not essential condition prior to
hybridisation.
• It is not necessary that only half filled orbitals participate in
hybridisation. In some cases, even filled orbitals of valence shell
take part in hybridisation.
Types of Hybridisation
 
sp
Hybridisation
The mixing of one s and one p orbital resulting in the
formation of two equivalent sp hybrid orbitals
 Examples

BeCl2

C2H2
sp2 Hybridisation
The mixing of one s and two p-orbitals in order to form three
equivalent sp2 hybridised orbitals
Examples

BF3

C2H4
sp3 Hybridisation
The mixing of one s-orbital and three p-orbitals of the valence
shell to form four sp3 hybrid orbitals
sp3 Hybridisation in C2H6
molecule:
• In ethane molecule both the carbon atoms assume sp3 hybrid
state.
• One of the four sp3 hybrid orbitals of carbon atom overlaps
axially with similar orbitals of other atom to form sp3 - sp3
sigma bond while the other three hybrid orbitals of each
carbon atom are used in forming sp3–s sigma bonds with
hydrogen atoms

C2H6
Hybridisation of Elements involving d-Orbitals

Hybridisation schemes involving s, p and d orbitals are

Formation of PCl5 ( sp3d hybridisation )
One s, three p and one d orbitals are available for hybridisation to
form a set of five hybrid orbitals which are directed towards the
five corners of a trigonal bipyramidal
In the PCl5 five d orbitals of phosphorus overlap with the singly
occupied p orbitals of chlorine atoms to form five P-Cl sigma bonds
Formation of SF6 ( sp3d2
hybridisation)
One s, three p and two d orbitals hybridise to form six new sp 3d2
hybrid orbitals, which are directed towards the six corners of a
regular octahedron in SF6
The six sp3d2 hybrid orbitals overlap with singly occupied orbitals
of fluorine atoms to form six S-F sigma bonds
 Molecular Orbital
Theory orbital theory
Features of molecular
are:
• The electrons in a molecule are present in the various molecular
orbitals as the electrons of atoms are present in the various
atomic orbitals.
• The atomic orbitals of comparable energies and proper symmetry
combine to form molecular orbitals.
• While an electron in an atomic orbital is influenced by one
nucleus, in a molecular orbital it is influenced by two or more
nuclei depending upon the number of atoms in the molecule.
Thus, an atomic orbital is monocentric while a molecular orbital is
polycentric
• The number of molecular orbital formed is equal to the number of
combining atomic orbitals. When two atomic orbitals combine, two
molecular orbitals are formed. One is known as bonding molecular
orbital and other is called antibonding molecular orbital.
• The bonding molecular orbital has lower energy and hence greater
stability than the corresponding antibonding molecular orbital.
• The molecular orbitals like atomic orbitals are filled in accordance
with the aufbau principle obeying the Pauliís exclusion principle
and the Hundís rule
 Formation of Molecular Orbitals
Linear Combination of Atomic Orbitals (LCAO)

The formation of molecular orbitals is obtained by the linear

combination of atomic orbitals
The formation of molecular orbitals described by LCAO is given by
addition and by subtraction of wave functions of individual atomic
orbitals.
ψMO = ψA +
ψB
Bonding molecular orbital: The molecular orbital(σ) formed by the
addition of atomic orbitals
Antibonding molecular orbital: The molecular orbital(σ*) formed by
the subtraction of atomic orbital
σ = ψA + ψB
σ* =ψA - ψB

• A bonding molecular orbital has lower energy compared to

atomic orbitals of A and B.
• A antibonding molecular orbital has higher energy compared to
atomic orbitals of A and B.
• Thus the total energy of two molecular orbitals remains the
same as two atomic orbitals.
Formation of bonding (σ) and antibonding (σ*) molecular orbitals
by the linear combination of atomic orbitals
 Conditions for the Combination of Atomic Orbitals

• The combining atomic orbitals must have the same or nearly

the same energy
• The combining atomic orbitals must have the same symmetry
about the molecular axis
• The combining atomic orbitals must overlap to the maximum
extent
Types of Molecular Orbitals

• σ(sigma)
• π(pi)
• δ (delta)

The sigma (σ ) molecular orbitals are symmetrical around the

bond-axis while pi (π) molecular orbitals are not symmetrical.
Energy Level Diagram for Molecular Orbitals

1s atomic orbitals
2PZ atomic orbitals
 2PX atomic orbitals

Energy of molecular orbital σ2PZ is higher than that of π2PX

and π2PY molecular orbitals
Electronic Configuration and Molecular Behaviour

Electronic Configuration : The distribution of electrons among various

molecular orbital.

Stability of
Molecules:
• If Nb > Na then it is a stable molecule

• If Nb < Na then it is unstable

where Nb is no. of electrons occupying bonding orbitals

Na is no. of electrons occupying anti-bonding orbitals
 Bond
order:
Bond order is defined as one half the difference between the
number of electrons present in the bonding and the antibonding
orbitals.
Bond order = (Nb - Na )/2

If Nb > Na then it is positive bond order.

If Nb < Na then it is negative bond order.

If Nb = Na then it is zero bond order.

 Bonding In Some Homonuclear Diatomic
Molecules
Hydrogen molecule(H2
)
This is formed by the combination of two hydrogen atoms in which
each atom has one electron in 1s orbital. Thus in hydrogen atom
there are two electrons which are present in σ1s molecular orbital
Electronic configuration of hydrogen molecule is H2 : (σ1s)2

Bond order of hydrogen molecule is:

Bond order = (Nb-Na)/2 = (2-0)/2 = 1

Bond dissociation energy of hydrogen molecule is 438 kJ

mol-1
Bond length of hydrogen molecule is 74 pm
 Helium molecule
Helium atom contains two electrons, thus in Helium molecule there
would be four electrons
Electronic configuration of helium molecule is
He2: (σ1s)2(σ*1s)2
Bond order of Helium molecule is (2 - 2)/2 = 0
Thus Helium molecule is unstable and does not exist

Lithium molecule
In Lithium molecule there are six electrons.
The electronic configuration of Lithium molecule is
Li2: (σ1s)2(σ*1s)2(σ2s)2
Bond order of Lithium molecule is (4 - 2)/2 = 1
Lithium molecule is stable and since it has no unpaired electrons
 Carbon molecule
There are twelve electrons in carbon molecule
Electronic configuration of Carbon molecule is:
C2: (σ1s)2(σ*1s)2(σ2s)2(σ*2s)2(∏2Px2 -∏2Py2)
The bond order of Carbon molecule is (8 - 4)/2 = 2
Carbon molecule is
diamagnetic
Oxygen molecule
In Oxygen molecule there are 16 electrons i.e., each oxygen
atom has 6 electrons
Electronic configuration of Oxygen molecule is
O2: (σ1s)2(σ*1s)2(σ2s)2(σ*2s)2(σ1Pz)(∏2Px2 -∏2Py2)(∏*2Px1 -
∏*2Py1)
Bond order of oxygen molecule is (10-6)/2 = 2
Oxygen molecule is
paramagnetic
 Hydrogen
Nitrogen, Bonding
oxygen and fluorine are the highly electronegative
elements. When they are attached to a hydrogen atom to form
covalent bond, the electrons of the covalent bond are shifted
towards the more electronegative atom.

In HF molecule, the hydrogen bond exists

between hydrogen atom of one molecule
and fluorine atom of another molecule.

---H δ+ - F δ− --- H δ+ - F δ− --- H δ+ - F δ−

Cause of Formation of Hydrogen Bond

• The magnitude of H-bonding depends on the physical state of

the compound. It is maximum in the solid state and minimum in
the gaseous state.
• Thus, the hydrogen bonds have strong influence on the
structure and properties of the compounds

The Electrostatic forces of attractions between a

partially positively charged hydrogen atom of a polar
molecule and a highly electronegative atom is known as
HYDROGEN BOND.
 Types of H-Bonds

There are two types of H-bonds:

• Intermolecular hydrogen bond

• Intramolecular hydrogen bond
 Intermolecular hydrogen bond
It is formed between two different molecules of the same or different
compounds

Intramolecular hydrogen bond

It is formed when hydrogen atom is in between the two highly
electronegative (F, O, N) atoms present within the same molecule.