"A chemical bond is a lasting attraction between atoms or ions that enables the formation of molecules, crystals, and other structures."
This topic covers the formation of chemical bonds between atoms, including covalent, ionic, and metallic bonding.
Atomic structure: The basic structure, including the makeup of protons, neutrons, and electrons, and how they interact with each other.
Electron configuration: The arrangement of electrons in an atom's energy levels, which determines the chemical properties of the atom.
Valence electrons: The outermost electrons of an atom, which are involved in chemical bonding.
Ionic bonding: The attraction between oppositely charged ions, resulting in the formation of a compound.
Covalent bonding: The sharing of electrons between atoms to form a stable compound.
Polar covalent bonds: Covalent bonds in which electrons are shared unequally, resulting in partial positive and negative charges in the molecule.
Hybridization: The combination of atomic orbitals to form hybrid orbitals, which are involved in bonding.
Resonance structures: A way of representing the distribution of electrons in a molecule when it cannot be adequately described by a single Lewis structure.
Intermolecular forces: The attractive or repulsive forces between molecules.
Van der Waals forces: The weak intermolecular forces that exist between all atoms and molecules and result from fluctuations in electron density.
Hydrogen bonding: A strong dipole-dipole interaction in which a hydrogen atom covalently bonded to a highly electronegative atom is attracted to a lone pair of electrons on another electronegative atom.
"The bond may result from the electrostatic force between oppositely charged ions as in ionic bonds."
"The bond may result from...the sharing of electrons as in covalent bonds."
"There are 'strong bonds' or 'primary bonds' such as covalent, ionic and metallic bonds."
"There are 'weak bonds' or 'secondary bonds' such as dipole-dipole interactions, the London dispersion force, and hydrogen bonding."
"The negatively charged electrons surrounding the nucleus and the positively charged protons within a nucleus attract each other."
"Electrons shared between two nuclei will be attracted to both of them."
"Constructive quantum mechanical wavefunction interference stabilizes the paired nuclei."
"Bonded nuclei maintain an optimal distance (the bond distance) balancing attractive and repulsive effects explained quantitatively by quantum theory."
"The atoms in molecules, crystals, metals, and other forms of matter are held together by chemical bonds."
"All bonds can be described by quantum theory, but, in practice, simplified rules and other theories allow chemists to predict the strength, directionality, and polarity of bonds."
"The octet rule and VSEPR theory are examples."
"More sophisticated theories are valence bond theory, which includes orbital hybridization and resonance."
"More sophisticated theories...include molecular orbital theory, which includes the linear combination of atomic orbitals and ligand field theory."
"Electrostatics are used to describe bond polarities and the effects they have on chemical substances."
"The strength of chemical bonds varies considerably."
"The octet rule is an example [of a theory] that allows chemists to predict the strength, directionality, and polarity of bonds."
"The VSEPR theory is an example [of a theory] that allows chemists to predict the strength, directionality, and polarity of bonds."
"Orbital hybridization is a component of valence bond theory."
"Ligand field theory is a component of molecular orbital theory."