CHEMICAL BONDING

MODULE 2
INSTRUCTOR 1
 CHEMICAL BONDING
Chemical bonding is one of the most basic fundamentals of
chemistry that explains other concepts such as molecules and
reactions.
Everything in the world around us is made up of atoms, which
are tiny pieces of matter.
The different atoms stick together to form all kinds of things in
the world..
The atoms stick together because of chemical attraction.
The attraction is created because of the electrostatic force caused
by the attraction between electrons and nuclei.
CHEMICAL BONDING
 CHEMICAL BONDING

The basic answer is that atoms are trying to attain the

most stable (lowest-energy) state that they can.

Many atoms become stable when their valence shell is

filled with electrons or when they satisfy the octet rule
(by having eight valence electrons).

The atoms do so by gaining, losing, or sharing

electrons via bonds.
 CHEMICAL BONDING
∙ The noble gases were the only elements whose
atoms seemed unable to form bonds to one
another or other atoms.
Atoms of the noble gases do not normally
combine with any other metal.
The lack of reactivity of these noble gases is
due to the fact that they already have low
energy.
 CHEMICAL BONDING

The low energy is associated with the atoms having a

complete outer shell of electrons.

∙ It is important to note that a molecule will only be

formed if it is more stable and has a lower energy
than individual atoms.
CHEMICAL BONDS

What are Chemical Bonds?

Chemical bonds are attractive forces that hold/bind

atoms together in form of molecules/compounds.

Chemical bonds form because they lower the potential energy

between the charged particles that compose the atom.
 THEORIES ON CHEMICAL BONDING
Between 1916 & 1919, several important proposals about
chemical bonding were made by 3 scientists:

2 Americans – G.N. Lewis & Irving Langmuir

1 German – Walter Kossel.

THE PROPOSALS
(1) That, there must be something unique in the
electronic configuration of inert gas atoms which
prevents their combination with other atoms,
(2) That other atoms unite with one another so as to
acquire electronic configuration like the inert gas atoms.
 THEORIES ON CHEMICAL BONDING

∙ The theory that developed around these models/proposal became

most closely associated with Lewis theory.

LEWIS THEORY,
By Lewis theory, the following basic ideas/points could be
developed:
1. Electrons, especially those of the outermost (i.e. Valence) electronic
shell, play a fundamental role in chemical bonding;
2. In some cases, chemical bonding results from the transfer of one or
more electrons from one atom to another. This leads to the formation
of positive and negative ions and a bond type called ionic.
 THEORIES ON CHEMICAL BONDING

3. In other cases, chemical bonding involves the sharing of

electrons between atoms. This leads to formation of
molecules having a bond type called covalent.

4. Electrons are transferred or shared to the extent that each

atom acquires an especially stable electron configuration
such as that of a noble gas i.e. having eight outer-shell
electrons called an OCTET configuration.
The Octet rule is very reliable & very useful in explaining a
number of bonds formed in simple cases. It however gives
no indication of the shape adopted by the molecules.