Covalent bonding Wednesday, 28 June 2023

What happens to electrons in Give examples of giant

covalent bonding? covalent structures
Electrons are shared Diamond, graphite, silicon, silicon
dioxide

1 2

Are boiling points high or low for Can covalent bonds

giant covalent structures? conduct electricity?
Very high- requires a lot of energy to No (except graphite)
break bonds
3 4
 3: Covalent bonding
• Define covalent bonding
• Construct dot-and-cross diagram
• Use average bond enthalpy as a measure of covalent
bond strength

• Starter:

covalent bonding
Single covalent
Multiple covalent
Dative covalent
 Easy exam mark

Definition…

Covalent bonding is the strong

electrostatic attraction between a shared
pair of electrons and the nuclei of the
bonded atoms
 A Covalent bond

• Is a bond formed by a shared pair of

electrons
• It occurs between non-metals
• The electron pair occupies the space
between 2 atoms
• The - charge electrons are attracted to
the + charged nuclei which, overcomes
the repulsion of the + charged nulclei
 Single covalent bonds
• Each H has 1e- in outer shell
• Each H contributes 1e- to the covalent bond
• The bond is shown as a line H-H

H2

• This is a directional bond between the 2 atoms

• This is contrast to ionic bond which attracts in all
directions
 Other examples…

• All atoms have achieved a full outer shell of e- (noble gas

configuration)
• All unpaired electrons have been spin paired.
• H – 1 bond
• O – 2 bonds
• N – 3 bonds
• C- 4 bonds
 Lone pairs
1 lone pair of
2 lone electrons
pairs of
electrons

• An outer shell electron pair not used for chemical

bonding is known as a lone pair of electrons
• A lone pair gives a concentrated region of – charge
around the atom.
• (We will look how this can effect the chemistry of
the molecules later)
 Multiple covalent bonds
Sharing 2 Sharing 3 Sharing 2 Sharing 2
pairs of e- pairs of e-
pairs of e- pairs of e-

• More than 1 pair of electrons can be

shared to form multiple covalent bonds
Have a go...
Have a go...
 A dative covalent bonds is…
• A shared pair of electrons which has been
provided by 1 bonding atom only
• However, once formed the dative covalent
bond is equivalent to all other covalent bonds
– you can’t tell which is formed by the Lp
A dative covalent bond

The direction of the arrow

shows the direction in which
the e- pair has been donated –
N has donated the electrons
to form the bond
 Ammonium ion, NH4+
• 3 covalent bonds, 1 dative covalent bond
• N has a Lp of electrons which it uses to
provide both bonding pair of e-s to H+ ion
• Therefore NH4+ ion has a positive charge

bonding pair
Lone pair of
of electrons
electrons
 Oxonium ion, H3O+

• When an acid is added to water, water

molecules form H3O+
•

• In equations we shorted H3O+ to H+(aq)

Oxygen supplies both

the bonding pair of
electrons to form the
dative covalent bond
 How many covalent
bonds?

• It is not always possible to fulfill the

octet rule (noble gas e- configuration):
 There may not be enough electrons
 More than 4 electrons may pair up in
bonding
 Not reaching the Octet
• B and Be form covalent bonds without
fulfilling the octet rule but do pair up
any unpaired electrons

• Boron has 3 e- in the outer shell

• Fluorine has 7 e- in the outer shell

• 3 covalent bonds form

• boron’s electrons are now spin paired
• each F has achieved the octet
Boron trifluoride
 Expansion of the octet
• From period 3, element in groups 5-7 do some weird stuff!!
• As we more down the period table more of the outer shell
electrons can take part in bonding – we get more than 8e- in
the outer shell

• Non-metals in group 5 (P, As) – form 3/5 covalent bonds

• Non-metals in group 6 (S, Se, Te) – form 2/4/6 covalent
bonds
• Non-metals in group 7 (Cl, Br, I, At) – form 1/3/5/7
covalent bonds
 Example
• S has 6e- in the outer shell
which can be paired
• 6 covalent bonds form
• 12e- surround S
• F achieves the octet rule

Better rules than the octet rule:

-Unpaired electrons pair up
-Maximum number of e-s that can pair
Sulphur hexafluoride, up is equal to the number of e-s in the
SF6 outer shell
Have a go...
 Enthalpy is a posh word for energy

Covalent bond strength

• Average bond enthalpy measures the energy
required to break a covalent bond

• The larger the value the stronger the covalent

bond so the more energy required to break it.

• The strength depends on

• 1. orbital overlap
• 2. how strongly the nuclei are attracted to the
shared electrons
 Have a go...
• Page 103
• Application
• Recall
 Have a go...

exam questions