Free Structure and Bonding in Elements Essay Sample

A chemical bond is defined as an attraction between two atoms, hence allowing the creation of chemical substances that possess more than two atoms. This kind of bond is created by a strong electromagnetic force that exists between two different and opposite charges, either due to attraction in the dipoles or in the nuclei and electrons. There is a strong variance in the strength of different chemical bonds, with the ionic and covalent bonds being the strongest, while others like the hydrogen bonding, the interaction from dipole to dipole as well as the London dispersion force are the weakest. Given that opposite charges are attracted to each other through an easy electromagnetic force, the positively charged protons in the nucleus and the negatively charged electrons revolving around the nucleus are drawn to each other. In addition, any electron that is situated between two nuclei will be attracted to both. Therefore, a nucleus is said to have a more stable configuration if the electrons are located inside the nuclei rather than elsewhere in space.

The presence of electrons in the nucleus results into a force of attraction between different nuclei which results into a chemical bond.  Nevertheless, the assembly of different nuclei cannot disintegrate to a size predetermined by the quantity of these individual particles. Owing to the nature of wave matter in electrons as well as their considerable small mass, they absorb a much bigger total volume when weigh against the nuclei. It is this volume use by the electrons that maintains that the atomic nuclei are reasonably far apart, when contrasted with the size of the nuclei. Generally, a strong chemical bonding is linked to the transfer and sharing of electrons among the participating atoms. The atoms in metals, crystals, diatomic gases and molecules, and any other physical environment, are held in place by chemical bonds, which determine the mass and structure of the matter.

Metallic Bond

A metallic bond is defined as a chemical bond that binds together the atoms of metals. The bond is prevalent in elements possessing lose bound valence electrons, that are not tightly bound to the nucleus. Metallic bonds are created following an attraction that exists between fixed positively charged metallic atoms and mobile electrons. While majority chemical bonds are localized in particular neighboring atoms, metallic bonds are prevalent over the whole molecular structure. A metallic bond helps an atom to achieve a more stable configuration by sharing the electrons present in the outer shell with other atoms. Each atom in this kind of bond shares all the electrons present in the valence shell with other atoms in the crystal.  All the electrons involved in metallic bonding are delocalized over a lattice of atoms. The presence of delocalized or freely moving bonding electrons is known to cause the classic metallic properties of metals such as thermal and electrical conductivity, high tensile strength, ductility and surface light reflectivity.

An illustration of Metallic Bond

The lost outer electrons in metals form metal cations while all the electrons in the metal atoms flow around the cations to form a sea of electrons. The electrons are frequently portrayed as delocalized electrons meaning “freely moving”

The electrons and the metal cations will be attracted to each other as they posses opposite charges. The resulting electrostatic forces known as metallic bonds are what hold the metal particles together.

Covalent Bond

A covalent bond is a type of chemical bonding created when a pair of electrons is shared between different atoms as well as other covalent bonds.  Essentially, the stability of attraction-to-repulsion present when the atoms share electrons is referred to as covalent bond. There are different types of covalent bonds, with polar and dative covalent bonds being the most prevalent.  Polar covalent bonds are essential since they allow the formation of another type of weak bond known as the hydrogen bond. A good example of polar bond is water which engages in both polar covalent and hydrogen bonding.

Ionic Bond

An ionic bond may be viewed as an explicit type of chemical bond that brings together metallic and nonmetallic ions through electrostatic concentration. The bond is fundamentally defined as an attraction involving two ions with opposite charges. The metal offers one or more electrons, which form a positively charged cation or ion with an electrical configuration, that id very stable. In return after entering the non metal, these electrons form an anion (negatively charged ion) with a very stable electron configuration. The existence of an electrostatic attraction involving the oppositely charged ions makes them to converge and create a bond.

Dative Bond

The word dative means to share. In an ordinary covalent bond, a single electron is shared from each of the atoms. However, in dative covalent bonds, a single atom donates both electrons. Also known as coordinate bonding, this kind of bonding may involve molecules that have an extra pair of molecules to donate. That is molecules that have room for a pair of electrons and ones that have an extra lone pair of electrons.  A pretty good illustration of the dative covalent bond is found in the ammonium ion (NH4⁺). The ion is created following a vigorous reaction of hydrogen and ammonia ions.

It will be noticed that in the illustration above, all the atoms have their outer shells full of electrons. The dative bond is represented by the arrow that points to the atom receiving the electrons. There exists no particular way to differentiate a dative covalent from a covalent bond, since both have a shared pair of electrons whose source can’t be established.

Intermolecular Forces

The intermolecular forces are known to cause the attraction or repulsion between different molecules. As a result, there are four essential types of bonds that can be created between two or more non-associated ions, atoms, or molecules. The intermolecular forces have been known to dictate the different physical characteristics of substances such as their melting point. A significant variation in electro-negativity involving two or more bonded atoms may result in a permanent separation of charge, or dipole in an ion or molecule. Therefore a dipole to dipole interaction may ensue following an interaction of two or more ions or molecules with permanent dipoles. On average, the bonding in an ion or molecule will be more electro-negative, a condition that will result in partial charges on each atom, thereby resulting in electrostatic forces between ions and molecules.

A strong and effective illustration of a permanent dipole is the hydrogen bond. The huge variation in electro-negativities involving hydrogen and any of oxygen, nitrogen and fluorine, joined together by the lone pairs of electrons result in strong electrostatic forces present in between the molecules. With respect to their heavier analogues, Hydrogen bonds are known to cause the melting and boiling points of water and ammonia. Another notable intermolecular force is the London dispersion force, which is caused by the presence of instant dipoles in neighboring atoms. Since the negative charge of the electron is not homogeneous around the entire atom, there is a resulting imbalance in charge. Such an imbalance, however small will stimulate an analogous dipole in a near molecule; resulting in an attraction between the two. Thereafter, the electron relocates to another part of the electron cloud causing the attraction to break. 

 

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