STRUCTURE AND BONDING

BONDING
 A bond is a mutual force that joins two atoms together.
 Electrons are the ones involved in bonding.
 Bonding usually results to the formation of molecules or compounds.
 Electrons can either be transferred between one atom and another or shared between atoms.

Types of bonding
 The main types of bonding are;
a) Ionic bonding
b) Covalent bonding
c) Dative bonding / coordinate bonding
d) Metallic bonding

a) Ionc bonding
 This is the bonding between a metallic atom and a non-metallic atom.
 It mainly involves, complete transfer of electrons.
 Ionic bonding is also known as electrovalent bonding.
 There exists a strong attracting between the positively charged ions and the negatively
charged ions. This is what causes ionic compounds to have a high melting point.

Properties of ionic compounds

i) They have high melting point and boiling point.
ii) They are soluble in water.
iii) They are hard but brittle (can break easily)
iv) They are insoluble in organic compounds.
v) They conduct electricity in molten or solution state.

Examples of ionic bonding

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 Sodium chloride (NaCl)

Na – 2.8.1
Cl – 2.8.7
-
+

+ +

Na Cl Na+ Cl-

Magnesium Chloride (MgCl2)

Mg – 2.8.2

Cl – 2.8.7

2 -
+

+
2
Mg2+ 2Cl-

2+

Exercise

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Use dot ( ) and cross ( ) diagram to show the bonding in the following compounds.

1. Sodium Oxide (Na2O)

2. Magnesium Oxide (MgO)
3. Calcium Chloride (CaCl2)
4. Lithium Oxide (Li2O)
5. Calcium Oxide (CaO)
6. Aluminium Oxide (Al2O3)
7. Lithium Chloride (LiCl)
8. Potassium Chloride (KCl)
9. Lithium Fluoride (LiF)
10. Potassium Oxide (K2O)

b) Covalent Bonding
 This is the bonding between non-metallic atoms.
 Covalent bonding involves sharing of electrons between the bonding atoms.
 The number of electrons that an atom needs to gain in order to be stable, are the same
number of electrons that need to be shared out.
 In a covalent bond, a pair of electrons is shared between two atoms. Each of the positively
charged pair of electrons.
 Covalent bonding mainly occurs in molecules.
 Molecules contain a certain fixed number of atoms which are joined together by covalent
bonds.
 Hydrogen molecules are said to be diatomic because they contain two atoms. Other sorts of
molecules may have as many as thousands of atoms joined together.
 Hydrogen forms molecules because the molecules are much more stable than two separate
hydrogen atoms.

Examples of covalent bonds

Hydrogen Molecule (H2)

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 Pair of electrons
H H H–H
H H

 Each pair of shared electrons forms a bond.

Oxygen Molecule (O2)

O – 2.6

O=O

Lone pairs of electrons (Non-bonding)

OO

Water Molecules (H2O)

H O O
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 H- O – H H O H

Exercise

Use dot ( ) and cross ( ) diagram to show bonding in the following compounds.

1. Nitrogen molecule (N2)

2. Chlorine molecule (Cl2)
3. Carbon dioxide (CO2)
4. Methane (CH4)
5. Ammonia (NH3)
6. Ethane (C2H6)
7. Ethene (C2H4)
8. Hydrogen chloride (HCl)

Properties of covalent compounds

i) They have low melting and boiling points.

ii) They are insoluble in water.
iii) They are soluble in organic solvents.
iv) They do not conduct electricity either in molten or solution state.

c) Metallic bonding
 Most metals are hard and have high melting points. This suggests that the forces holding the
particles in the metal together are very strong.
 The outer electron(s) on each metallic atom becomes free to move throughout the whole
structure. The electrons are said to be delocalized.

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 These electrons are no longer attached to particular atoms or pairs of atoms. Instead they can
be thought as flowing around throughout the whole metal.
 If a metallic atom loses its outer electron(s) that leaves behind a metallic ion.
 The attraction of each positive ion to the delocalized electrons holds the structure together.
 Metallic bonding is sometimes described as an array of positive ions in a sea of electrons.

Example of metallic bonding in sodium

+ + + + Delocalized electrons
- - -
+ + +
- - -
+ + +
- - - Array of positive ions
+ +
- +
- -

Intermolecular Forces
 Intermolecular forces / intermolecular attractions are the forces of attraction between separate
molecules.
 They are a lot weaker than covalent or ionic bonds and vary in strength from substance to
substance. For example, the intermolecular forces between hydrogen molecules are very
weak. Hydrogen has to be cooled to -253oC before the molecules are travelling slowly
enough for the intermolecular attractions to be able to hold them together as a liquid.
 Sugar, on the contrary which is also a covalent compound is a solid that doesn’t melt until
185oC. The intermolecular forces between sugar molecules must be quite strong.
 Intermolecular forces arise from slight electrical distortions in molecules.
 In melting, some but not all of the intermolecular force are broken. In boiling, the attractions
are totally disrupted and the molecules become free to move around as a gas.

NB: Melting or boiling a substance made of molecules, breaks intermolecular forces but not
covalent bonds.

STRUCTURE

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 Structures can be classified into giant structures and molecular structures.

A. GIANT STRUCTURES
 Giant structures contain huge numbers of either atoms or ions arranged in some regular way,
but the number of particles is not fixed.
 Giant structures can be categorized as;
i) Giant metallic structures
ii) Giant ionic structures.
iii) Giant covalent structures

a) Giant Metallic Structures

 Metals consist of a regular array of positive ions in a ‘sea of electrons’.

Physical properties of metals

i. Metals tend to be strong, with high melting and boiling points.
 This is due to the strong electrostatic forces of attraction involved.

ii. Metal conduct electricity

 This is mainly because the delocalized electrons are free to move throughout the structure.

iii. Metals are good conductors of heat

 This is due to the mobile, delocalized electrons.
 If you heat one end of a metal, the energy is picked up by the electrons and transferred
throughout the structure.

The workability of metals

 If a metal is subjected to just a small force, it will stretch and then return to its original shape
when the force is released. The metal is described as being elastic.
 When a large force is applied, the particles slide over each other and stay in their new
positions.
 Metals are usually easy to shape because their regular packing makes it simple for the atoms
to slide over each other.
 Metals are said to malleable and ductile.

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 Malleable - Means that it is easily beaten into shape.
 Ductile - Means that it is easily pulled out into wires.

Large Particles moved

force into new
positions

ALLOYS
 An alloy is a mixture of metals e.g brass is a mixture of copper and zinc.
 Metals can be made harder by alloying them with other metals.
 In an alloy, the different metals have slightly differently sized atoms. This breaks up the
regular arrangement and makes it more different for the layers to slide.

 In some cases alloys have unusual properties.

 Solder – an alloy of tin and lead, melts at a lower temperature than either of the metals
individually.
 Its low melting point, and the fact that it is a good conductor of electricity make it useful for
joining components in electrical circuits.
 Other common alloys include bronze (a mixture of copper and tin), stainless steel (an alloy of
iron with chromium and nickel) and cupronickel (a mixture of copper and nickel) used to
make silver coins.

b) Giant Ionic Structures

 An ion is an atom or group of atoms that carries an electrical charge, either positive or
negative.
 All ionic compounds consist of huge lattices of positive and negative ions packed together in
a regular way.
 A lattice - Is a regular array of particles.
 The lattice is held together by the strong attractions between the positively charged ions and
negatively charged ions

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 The Structure of Sodium Chloride
 The ions are usually drawn in an ‘exploded’ view.

Cl-

Na+

 Each sodium ion is touched by 6 chloride ions and in turn each chloride ion is touched by 6
sodium ions.
 This structure repeats itself over vast numbers of ions.

The Structure of Magnesium Oxide (MgO)

 Magnesium oxide contains Magnesium ions (Mg2+) and oxide ions (O2-).
 It has exactly the same structure as sodium chloride.
 The only difference is that the magnesium oxide lattice is held together by stronger forces of
attraction. This is because in magnesium oxide, 2+ ions are attracting 2- ions.
 In sodium chloride, the attractions are weaker because they are only between 1+ and 1- ions.

Physical properties of ionic substances

1. They have high melting boiling points.
 This is due to the strong forces holding the lattices together.
 Magnesium oxide has a much higher melting and boiling points than sodium chloride
because the attractive forces are much stronger.
2. They tend crystalline
 This is seen in the regular arrangement of ions in the lattice.

3. They tend to be brittle

 Ionic compounds are usually very hard but can easily break.
 The breaking occurs mainly because any small distortion of a crystal will bring ions with the
same charge alongside each other. Like charges repel and so the crystal splits itself apart.

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 4. They are soluble in water
 Even though water is a covalent molecule, the electrons in the bonds are attracted towards the
oxygen end of the bond. This makes the oxygen slightly negative. It leaves the hydrogen
slightly short of electrons, and therefore slightly positive.
 Due to this electrical distortion, water is described as a polar molecule.
 There are quite strong attractions between the polar water molecules and the ions in the
lattice.
 The slightly positive hydrogens in the water molecules cluster around the negative ions, and
the slightly negative oxygens are attracted to the positive ions.
 The water molecules then literally pull the sodium chloride crystal apart.

NB: Magnesium Oxide isn’t soluble in water because the attractions between the water
molecules and the ions aren’t strong enough to break the very powerful ionic bonds between
magnesium and oxide ions.

5. They are insoluble in organic solvents

 Organic solvents contain molecules which have much less electrical distortion than there is in
water (their molecules are less polar).
 There isn’t enough attraction between these molecules and the ions in the crystal to break the
strong forces holding the lattice together.

The Electrical Behaviour of Ionic Substances

 Ionic compounds do not conduct electricity when they are in solid state because they don’t
contain any mobile electrons.
 They only conduct electricity once melted (molten) or dissolved in water (solution). This
enables the ions to become free to move around.

c) Giant Covalent Structures

(i) Diamond
 Diamond has a tetrahedral structure. Each carbon bonds strongly to four other carbon atoms.
 Each carbon atom has four unpaired electrons in its outer energy level, and it uses these to
form four covalent bonds.

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  Diamond is not a molecule, because the number of atoms joined up in a real diamond is
completely variable, depending on the size of the crystal.
 Molecules always contain fixed numbers of atoms joined by covalent bonds.

(a) Diamond is very hard, with a very high melting and boiling point.
 This is due to the strong carbon-carbon covalent bonds, which extend throughout the whole
crystal in three dimensions.

(b) Diamond doesn’t conduct electricity.

 All the electrons in the outer levels of the carbon atoms are tightly held in covalent bonds
between the atoms. None are free to move around.
 Therefore diamond does not have delocalized electrons.

(c) Diamond doesn’t dissolve in water or any other solvent.

 This is due to the powerful covalent bonds between the carbon atoms.

Uses of Diamond
1. Making drilling tools and cutting tools due to its hardness.
2. Making jewellery due to its shiny appearance.

(ii) Graphite
 Graphite has a hexagonal structure. Six carbon atoms are bonded to each other in hexagons.
 Graphite has a layer structure.
 The layers are bonded together by weak Van der Waals forces.

Covalent bond

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Van der Waal’s

forces
 a) Graphite is a soft material with a slimy feel
 Although the forces holding the atoms together in each layer are very strong, the attractions
between the layers are much weaker.
 The layers are arranged in an overlap and can easily slide over each other.
 Graphite is mixed with clay to make it harder.
 When rubbed against a surface, graphite usually leaves a mark and therefore it is used to
make pencils.
 Pure graphite is so slippery that it is used as a dry lubricant.

b) Graphite has a high melting and boiling point and is insoluble in any solvents
 Since graphite has strong covalent bonds between its atoms, it requires a high temperature to
break through.

c) Graphite is less dense than diamond

 The layers in graphite are relatively far apart.
 The distance between the graphite layers is more than twice the distance between atoms in
each layer.
d) Graphite conducts electricity
 Each carbon atom is joined to only three others.
 Each carbon atom uses three of its electrons to form the covalent bonds.
 The fourth electron in the outer layer of each atom is free to move around throughout the
whole of the layer.
 The movement of these electrons allows the graphite to conduct electricity.

B. SIMPLE MOLECULAR STRUCTURES

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 The forces of attraction between one molecule and its neighbors (intermolecular forces) are
much weaker than the covalent bonds and vary in strength from compound to compound.
 Little energy is needed to break the intermolecular attractions.
 Simple molecular compounds tend to be gases, liquids or solids with a low melting point.

a) Molecular substances tend to be insoluble in water

 Water molecules have stronger intermolecular attractions between them than expected. In
order for a substance to dissolve, these attractions between water molecules have to be
broken so that the dissolving molecules can fit between them.

b) Molecular substances are often soluble in organic solvents

 The intermolecular attractions between the two different types of molecule are much the
same as in the pure substances.

c) Molecular substances don’t conduct electricity

 The molecules don’t have any overall electrical charge and there are no electrons mobile
enough to move from molecule to molecule.

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