JC1 H2 Chemistry - Chemical Bonding: Covalent Bonds Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary related to covalent bonding in chemistry.

Covalent Bond

The electrostatic attraction between two positively charged nuclei and the shared pair of electrons (or bonding electrons) that hold the two atoms together.

Bond Length

The distance between the nuclei of the two atoms involved in the covalent bond, where there is a balance of attractive and repulsive forces, resulting in minimum energy.

Electronegativity

The ability of an atom to attract electrons in a covalent bond towards itself.

Sigma (σ) Bond

A covalent bond formed when two orbitals overlap head-on along the nuclear axis, concentrating electron density between the nuclei of the two bonding atoms.

Pi (π) Bond

A covalent bond formed when p orbitals of two atoms overlap sideways above and below the plane of the nuclear axis, resulting in an electron cloud above and below the axis with zero density along it.

Dative Covalent (Coordinate) Bond

A bond where the shared pair of electrons is provided by only one of the bonding atoms, represented by an arrow from the donor to the acceptor atom.

Bond Energy

The energy required to break 1 mole of a covalent bond between two atoms in the gaseous state.

Bond Pair

An electron pair that is shared between the bonded atoms.

Lone Pair

An electron pair not shared with another atom.

Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) Theory

A theory used to predict the shape or molecular geometry of a molecule (or ion) based on minimizing the repulsion between electron pairs around the central atom.

Polar Bond

A covalent bond where the electron pair is not equally shared due to differences in electronegativity, creating a dipole.

Dipole Moment

The degree of polarity of a bond measured by the product of the charge and the distance between the charges.