Covalent Bonds and Their Properties

A collection of vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts about covalent bonds and their properties.

Valence Electrons

The s and p electrons in the outer energy level of an atom, responsible for its chemical properties.

Octet Rule

The principle that atoms tend to bond in such a way that they each have eight valence electrons, achieving noble gas configuration.

Covalent Bond

A type of chemical bond where two atoms share pairs of electrons in order to achieve noble gas electron configuration.

Polar Covalent Bond

A bond between two different atoms where electrons are shared unequally, resulting in one atom being more electronegative than the other.

Electronegativity

A measure of how strongly an atom attracts electrons in a bond, used to predict the polarity of the bond.

Hydrogen Bonding

A type of intermolecular force that occurs when hydrogen is bonded to highly electronegative atoms like F, O, or N.

Multiple Bonds

When atoms share more than one pair of valence electrons; can be double (sharing two pairs) or triple bonds (sharing three pairs).

Intermolecular Forces

Forces that hold molecules together; include London dispersion forces, dipole interactions, and hydrogen bonding.

Resonance Structure

Different ways of drawing a Lewis dot structure for a molecule that satisfies the electron count and octet rule.

VSEPR Theory

Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion theory used to predict the three-dimensional geometry of molecules based on electron pair repulsion.