Summary - Chemistry: Chemical bonding

SUMMARY

In molecules, atoms are held together by attractive forces, called chemical bonds. Kossel and Lewis are the first people to provide a logical explanation for chemical bonding. They proposed that atoms try to attain the nearest noble gas electronic configuration by losing, gaining or sharing one or more electrons during the bond formation. The noble gases contain eight electrons in their valance shell which is considered to be stable electronic configuration. The idea of Kossel – Lewis approach to chemical bond lead to the octet rule, which states that “the atoms transfer or share electrons so that all atoms involved in chemical bonding obtain 8 electrons in their outer shell (valance shell)”.

There are different types of chemical bonds. In compounds such as sodium chloride, the sodium atom loses an electron which is accepted by the chlorine atom resulting in the formation of Na⁺ and Cl^- ions. These two ions are held together by the electrostatic attractive forces. This type of chemical bond is known as ionic bonds or electrovalent bonds. In certain compounds, instead of the complete transfer of electrons, the electrons are shared by both the bonding atoms. The two combining atoms are held together by their mutual attraction towards the shared electrons. This type of bond is called covalent bonding. In addition, there also another bond type known as coordinate covalent bonds, where the shared electrons of a covalent bond are provided by only one of the combining atoms. Metallic bonding is another type of bonding which is observed in metals.

Lewis theory in combination with VSEPR theory will be useful in predicting the shape of molecules. According to this theory, the shape of the molecules depends on the number of valance shell electron pair (lone pairs and bond pairs) around the central atom. Each pair of valance electrons around the central atom repels each other and hence, they are located as far away as possible in three-dimensional space to minimise the repulsion between them.

Heitler and London gave a theoretical treatment to explain the formation of covalent bond in hydrogen molecule on the basis of wave mechanics of electrons. It was further developed by Pauling and Slater. According to this theory when half-filled orbitals of two atoms overlap, a covalent bond will be formed between them. Linus Pauling introduced the concept of hybridisation. Hybridisation is the process of mixing of atomic orbitals of the same atom with comparable energy to form equal number of new equivalent orbitals with same energy. There are different types of hybridization such as sp, sp2, sp3, sp3d2 etc..

F. Hund and Robert. S. Mulliken developed a bonding theory called molecular orbital theory. According to this theory, when atoms combines to form molecules, their individual atomic orbitals lose their identity and forms new orbitals called molecular orbitals. The filling of electrons in these orbitals follows Aufbau's principle, Pauli's exclusion principle and Hund's rule as in the case of filling of electrons in atomic orbitals.