Bonding refers to the joining of two atoms in a stable arrangement.

Atoms bond because it is a

favorable process that leads to lower energy and increased stability. Most things we see are
mixtures of different elements bonded together to form compounds. Through bonding, atoms aim
to have a fully filled outer shell of valence electrons, which results in increased stability. This is
achieved by gaining, losing, or sharing electrons to attain the electronic configuration of a noble
gas.

There are two types of bonds: covalent and ionic. A covalent bond occurs between two non-
metals where electrons are shared. On the other hand, an ionic bond involves the transfer of
electrons and occurs between a metal and a non-metal. Ionic bonds typically occur between
elements on the far left and far right of the periodic table, while noble gases rarely form bonds
due to their stability (having already 8 valence electrons).

The transfer of electrons between elements leads to the formation of compounds called stable
salts composed of cations and anions. In a covalent bond, electrons are shared between atoms,
forming a two-electron bond. Compounds with covalent bonds are called molecules.

Bonds formed by atoms are based on their valence electrons. In neutral molecules, the number of
bonds formed depends on the number of valence electrons. Each valence electron can form one
bond, so atoms with one, two, three, or four valence electrons form one, two, three, or four
bonds, respectively. Atoms with five or more valence electrons form enough bonds to form an
octet. In this case, the predicted number of bonds is equal to 8 (the maximum number of valence
electrons)—the number of valence electrons of the given element. However, if atoms have more
valence electrons than needed to form four bonds, which means forming fewer than four bonds,
they may have bonding (shared) and non-bonding (unshared) electrons, with the unshared
electrons called lone pairs.