CHEMICAL BONDING

LEWIS ELECTRON DOT STRUCTURE

• Lewis symbols use dots to visually represent the valence electrons of an atom
 KEY IDEAS IN THE LEWIS ELECTRON DOT
STRUCTURE
• Electrons exist outside of an atom ‘s nucleus and are found in principal energy levels that contain
only up to a specific number of electrons.
• The outermost principal energy level that contains electrons is called the valence level and
contains valence electrons.
• Lewis symbols are diagrams that show the number of valence electrons of a particular element
with dots that represent lone pairs.
• Lewis symbols do not visualize the electrons in the inner principal energy levels.
 IMPORTANT TERMS

• PRINCIPAL ENERGY LEVELS: The different levels where electrons can be found and that occur at
specific distances from the atom’s nucleus. Each level is associated with a particular energy value that
electrons within it have.
• VALENCE LEVEL: The outermost principal energy level, which is the level furthest away from the
nucleus that still contains electrons.
• VALENCE ELECTRONS: The electrons of atoms that participate in the formation of chemical
bonds.
• LEWIS SYMBOLS: Symbols of the elements with their number of valence electrons represented as
dots
 CHEMICAL BONDING

• Atoms tend to arrange themselves in the most stable patterns

possible, which means that they have a tendency to complete or fill
their outermost electron orbits. They join with other atoms to do just
that. The force that holds atoms together in collections known
as molecules is referred to as a chemical bond.
 TYPES OF CHEMICAL BONDS

• Involves a transfer of an electron, so one

atom gains an electron while one atom loses
an electron.

IONIC BOND • One of the resulting ions carries a negative

charge (anion), and the other ion carries a
positive charge (cation).
• Because opposite charges attract, the atoms
bond together to form a molecule.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF IONIC
COMPOUNDS
• They form crystals.
• They have higher enthalpies of fusion and vaporization than molecular compounds.
• They are hard.
• They are brittle.
• They have high melting points and also high boiling points.
• They conduct electricity but only when they are dissolved in water.
 TYPES OF CHEMICAL BONDS

• Involves the sharing of electrons between

two atoms.

COVALENT BOND • The pair of shared electrons forms a new

orbit that extends around the nuclei of both
atoms, producing a molecule.
• There are two secondary types of covalent
bonds that are relevant to biology — polar
bonds and hydrogen bonds.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF COVALENT
COMPOUNDS

• Low melting points and boiling points.

• Low enthalpies of fusion and vaporization these properties are usually one or
two orders of magnitude smaller than they are for ionic compounds.
• Soft or brittle solid forms.
• Poor electrical and thermal conductivity.
 POLAR BOND
• TWO ATOMS CONNECTED BY A COVALENT BOND MAY EXERT DIFFERENT ATTRACTIONS FOR THE
ELECTRONS IN THE BOND, PRODUCING AN UNEVENLY DISTRIBUTED CHARGE. THE RESULT IS
KNOWN AS A POLAR BOND, AN INTERMEDIATE CASE BETWEEN IONIC AND COVALENT BONDING,
WITH ONE END OF THE MOLECULE SLIGHTLY NEGATIVELY CHARGED AND THE OTHER END
SLIGHTLY POSITIVELY CHARGED.
• THESE SLIGHT IMBALANCES IN CHARGE DISTRIBUTION ARE INDICATED IN THE FIGURE BY
LOWERCASE DELTA SYMBOLS WITH A CHARGE SUPERSCRIPT (+ OR –). ALTHOUGH THE RESULTING
MOLECULE IS NEUTRAL, AT CLOSE DISTANCES THE UNEVEN CHARGE DISTRIBUTION CAN BE
IMPORTANT. WATER IS AN EXAMPLE OF A POLAR MOLECULE; THE OXYGEN END HAS A SLIGHT
POSITIVE CHARGE WHEREAS THE HYDROGEN ENDS ARE SLIGHTLY NEGATIVE. POLARITY
EXPLAINS WHY SOME SUBSTANCES DISSOLVE READILY IN WATER AND OTHERS DO NOT
 HYDROGEN BOND

• Because they’re polarized, two adjacent H2O (water) molecules can form a linkage known as
a hydrogen bond, where the (electronegative) hydrogen atom of one H 2O molecule is
electrostatically attracted to the (electropositive) oxygen atom of an adjacent water molecule.
• Consequently, molecules of water join together transiently in a hydrogen-bonded lattice.
Hydrogen bonds have only about 1/20 the strength of a covalent bond, yet even this force is
sufficient to affect the structure of water, producing many of its unique properties, such as high
surface tension, specific heat, and heat of vaporization. Hydrogen bonds are important in many
life processes, such as in replication and defining the shape of DNA molecules.