Strengths of

Covalent Bonding

A Presentation
Kristine Abellada
 Lecture Guidelines

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 COVALENT BONDING

Who remembers the meaning of covalent bonding, you learned from

the previous presentation? For this lecture, you should know the
meaning of the words...
• Strengths • Enthalpies of Reaction
• Bond Enthalpies
• Bong Lenght
 INTRODUCTION TO STRENGTHS OF
COVALENT BONDING

Remember that covalent bond occurs when

atoms share electron pairs to achieve a noble gas
electron configuration.
While the strength of a covalent bond is
measured by its bond dissociation energy, which
is the energy required to break the bond and
separate the bonded atoms.
Strengths of Covalent Bonds
The stability of a molecule is dependent on the strength
of the covalent bonds
• The bond strength is determined by how much energy is
required to break the bond
• Less energy required to break the bond = Weaker bond
• The more bonds between two atoms, the closer they are
together
• The closer the atoms are together, the stronger the bonding
 Bond Enthalpy and
Enthalpies of Reactions

• Bond enthalpy is the energy needed to

break the bond between atoms
• The more bonds, the higher the bond
enthalpy
• When a bond is made - exothermic
• When a bond is broken - endothermic
Bond Enthalpies and the
Enthalpies of Reactions
 Bond Enthalpies and the
Enthalpies of Reactions

Our strategy for estimating reaction enthalpies is a straightforward application of Hess’s law. We use the fact
that breaking bonds is always endothermic and forming bonds is always exothermic. We therefore imagine
that the reaction occurs in two steps:
1. We supply enough energy to break those bonds in the reactants that are not pres- ent in the products. The
enthalpy of the system is increased by the sum of the bond enthalpies of the bonds that are broken.
2. We form the bonds in the products that were not present in the reactants.Thisstep releases energy and
therefore lowers the enthalpy of the system by the sum of the bond enthalpies of the bonds that are formed.
 Hess’s Law
Hess’s law states that if a reaction is carried out in a series of
steps, △H for the over- all reaction equals the sum of the enthalpy
changes for the individual steps. The overall enthalpy change for
the process is independent of the number of steps and independent
of the path by which the reaction is carried out. This law is a
consequence of the fact that enthalpy is a state function.
Check For Understanding
 Enthalpies of Reaction

Cl-Cl bond energy = 242 kJ/mol

H-H bond energy = 436 kJ/mol
H-Cl bond energy = 431 kJ/mol
 Bond Enthalpy

Bond enthalpy = the enthalpy change =

ΔH of a mole of single bonds
 Bond Enthalpy and Bond Length

• Bond length - the distance between the nuclei of the

atoms involved in the bond

Cl
• With an increase in the number of bonds between
atoms, the bond enthalpy increases and the bond length
decreases.
• The bond length decreases because the atoms are being
held closer together.
 Conclusion

The strength of a covalent bond is measured by its bond

enthalpy, which is the molar enthalpy change upon breaking a
particular bond. Average bond enthalpies can be determined for
a wide variety of covalent bonds.
 Conclusion

The strengths of covalent bonds increase with the number

of electron pairs shared between two atoms. We can use
bond enthalpies to estimate the enthalpy change during
chemical reactions in which bonds are broken and new
bonds formed.
 Conclusion

The aver- age bond length between two atoms decreases as

the number of bonds between the atoms increases, consistent
with the bond being stronger as the number of bonds
increases.
Check For Understanding
Check For Understanding
Any Questions?
Now let’s practice
what we’ve learned!