Chapter 4 - Bonding –

There are three types of bonds that occur between atoms that we will be looking at:

 Ionic Bonding – an ionic bond occurs between a metal and non-metal atom (e.g. NaCl).
 Covalent Bonding – a covalent bond occurs between two non-metal atoms (e.g. I2, CH4).
 Metallic Bonding – a metallic bond occurs between atoms in a metal (e.g. Cu).

1. Ionic Bonding!
 Ionic bonds form between metals and non-metals.
 An ion is a positively or negatively charged atom.
How are ionic bonds formed?
 Ions are formed when electrons are transferred from* one atom to another.
 *Metal atoms such as sodium have a small number of electrons in the highest energy level. They lose these electrons to
achieve a stable electronic configuration, resulting in the formation of positive ions called Cations.
 Non-metal atoms such as chlorine have a large number of electrons in the highest energy level. They gain electrons to achieve
a stable configuration by filling this energy level, thus resulting in the formation of negative ions called Anions.
 In a reaction between sodium and chlorine, the electron in the highest energy level of sodium transfers and fills the highest
energy level of chlorine.
 This can be represented by a dot and cross diagram.
Dot and Cross Diagrams:
 Dot and cross diagrams show the arrangement of electrons in an atom or ion. Each electron is represented by a dot or cross.
 Do show all the energy levels.
Dot and Cross Diagram for Sodium Chloride:

How are the ions held together?

 The ions are held together by strong electrostatic attractions between the oppositely charged ions called an ionic bond.
 So an ionic bond is a strong electrostatic attraction between two oppositely charged ions that forms as a result of the
transferring of electrons from metals atoms to non-metals atoms.
 When oppositely charged ions form an ionic bond, you get an ionic compound.
 The formula of an ionic compound tells you what ions the compound has in it.

Ionic compounds form Giant Ionic Lattice Structures…

 When an ionic compound forms, the positively charged ions attract the negatively charged ions and arrange themselves into a
three-dimensional structure called an Ionic lattice.
 This structure forms because each ion is electrostatically attracted in all direction to ions of the opposite charge.

 We already know that metals lose electrons to form positive ions whist non-
metals gain electrons to form negative ions.
 The number of electrons gained or lost by an atom is related to the group in
which the element is found.
The evidence for ionic bonds!
Explain why ionic compounds have relatively high melting temperatures. June 2010.

Ionic compounds have a high melting and boiling points because they are formed as a result of the transfer of electrons from
metal atoms to non-metals atoms, thus resulting in the formation of positively charged and negatively charged ions. These ions
are held together in a giant ionic lattice structure by strong electrostatic forces of attraction formed between the ions. Large
amounts of heat energy are needed to overcome these attractive forces and break apart the ions.

1. Suggest why the melting temperature of magnesium oxide is higher than that of magnesium
chloride, even though they’re both almost 100% ionic. Jan 2011.
2. Covalent Bonding!
 When two non-metals react together, a covalent compound forms!
 Covalent bonding involves the sharing of a pair of electrons between two atoms.
 [This can be shown using a dot and cross diagram.]
 This happens when two atoms approach each other and their orbitals, each containing one electron,
overlap. The strength of the bond is proportional to the amount of overlap of the orbitals.

 The atoms are held together by the attraction of the positive nuclei to the pair of negative electrons in
the bonding orbital. This attraction is the covalent bond.
 Thus, covalent bonding is essentially a strong electrostatic attraction between the nuclei of the
bonded atoms and the shared pair of electrons between them. Zoom in on the red dots
aka your nuclei and you
 The distance between the two nuclei is the bond length.
can see that the covalent
bond is the attraction
between the positive
 Atoms can share more than one pair of electrons and form double or nuclei to the shared pair of
triple covalent bonds! negative electrons.
- A double bond results from two shared electron pairs – e.g. in oxygen, O2. 0=0.
- A triple bond results from three shared electron pairs – e.g. in nitrogen, N2, N=N.

Make sure you can draw the bonding in these molecules…

 Do not draw the inner shells. You do that for ionic bonding only (actually, it depends on
whether the question for ionic bonding asks for it or not).
 A covalent bond is a ….

Dative Covalent Bonding is where both electrons come from one atom…

 Co-ordinate or dative covalent bonds, like those in the ammonium (NH4+) ion form in a different way to normal covalent
bonds.
 In normal covalent bonding, the atoms are acting in a bit of an ‘I’ll lend you mine if you lend me yours’ way – each of the two
atom shares an electron. The shared electrons come from two different atoms.
 However, in dative covalent bonding, both of the shared electrons come from just one of the atoms.
How does it form?

 For a dative bond to form, one atom (in this case nitrogen) needs to have a lone pair of electrons. This is a pair that is not
involved in a normal covalent bond.
 A second atom/ion must have a vacant orbital.
Using Ammonia as an example…

 In this case, Nitrogen is the atom that has a lone pair of electrons and the H+ ion has no
electrons and so contains a vacant 1s orbital.

 The lone pair on the nitrogen donates a pair of electrons into a vacant orbital on
the hydrogen ion (essentially a proton), thus resulting in a dative covalent bond
forming.