Term 1 Topic - Covalent Bonding

As the second post, I will be talking about Covalent Bonding.

Covalent bonding is also another chemical bond, usually between 2 non-metals, where the two atoms of the elements "share electrons". This results in both elements to reach maximum valence electrons, whether 2 (For hydrogen only) or 8 (For every other element).

The "shared electrons" are attracted to both nucleus of both atoms. Hence, they are at a region that is between the two atoms and neither of the atoms completely gains or loses the electrons. However, this results in a weaker bonding.

There are two types of covalent bonding, namely:
1. Non-polar covalent bonding
2. Polar covalent bonding

Firstly, non-polar covalent bonding is where two non-metals equally share their electrons. There is a rule that the non-metals have to be identical but there are exceptions to that rule. For example, carbon and hydrogen are not identical non-metals, but they fall in under non-polar covalent bonding because they equally share their electrons. A more common example of non-polar covalent bonding is hydrogen gas. Two hydrogen atoms bond together to form hydrogen gas, and they also equally share their electrons.

Secondly, polar covalent bonding is where there is an unequal sharing of electrons between two different non-metals. In polar covalent bonding, there is an equal sharing of electrons for only a short percentage of time and there is an unequal sharing of electrons for a large percentage of time. For example, hydrogen and chlorine is bonded by polar covalent bonding and the electron is closer to chlorine a large percentage of the time.