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Covalent Bonds

Covalent Bonds

Covalent Bonds

Covalent Bonds

Overview
When two atoms share electrons to complete their valence shells, they create a covalent bond. An atom's electronegativity—the force with which shared electrons are pulled towards an atom—determines how the electrons are shared. Molecules formed with covalent bonds can be either polar or nonpolar. Atoms with similar electronegativities form nonpolar covalent bonds; the electrons are shared equally. Atoms with different electronegativities share electrons unequally,...

Covalent Bonding and Lewis Structures

Covalent Bonding and Lewis Structures

Compared to ionic bonds, which results from the transfer of electrons between metallic and nonmetallic atoms, covalent bonds result from the mutual attraction of atoms for a “shared” pair of electrons.

Bond Energies and Bond Lengths

Bond Energies and Bond Lengths

Stable molecules exist because covalent bonds hold the atoms together. The strength of a covalent bond is measured by the energy required to break it, that is, the energy necessary to separate the bonded atoms. Separating any pair of bonded atoms requires energy — the stronger a bond, the greater the energy required to break it.

Polar Covalent Bonds

Polar Covalent Bonds

Covalent bonds are formed between two atoms when both have similar tendencies to attract electrons to themselves (i.e., when both atoms have identical or fairly similar ionization energies and electron affinities). Nonmetal atoms frequently form covalent bonds with other nonmetal atoms. For example, the hydrogen molecule, H2, contains a covalent bond between its two hydrogen atoms. When two separate hydrogen atoms with a particular potential energy approach each other, their valence orbitals...

MO Theory and Covalent Bonding

MO Theory and Covalent Bonding

The molecular orbital theory describes the distribution of electrons in molecules in a manner similar to the distribution of electrons in atomic orbitals. The region of space in which a valence electron in a molecule is likely to be found is called a molecular orbital. Mathematically, the linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) generates molecular orbitals. Combinations of in-phase atomic orbital wave functions result in regions with a high probability of electron density, while...

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Light-driven Enzymatic Decarboxylation

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Published on: May 22, 2016

Energy-Degeneracy-Driven Covalency in Actinide Bonding.

Jing Su¹, Enrique R Batista¹, Kevin S Boland¹

¹Los Alamos National Laboratory , P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos , New Mexico 87545 , United States.

Journal of the American Chemical Society

|December 13, 2018

Summary

Actinide bonding reveals significant orbital mixing in AnCl62- compounds. Covalency increases with 5f-orbital contribution across the actinide series, impacting chemical bonding understanding.

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Area of Science:

Actinide chemistry
Inorganic chemistry
Computational chemistry

Background:

Understanding chemical bonding in actinide elements is crucial.
Actinide covalency influences their chemical properties and reactivity.

Purpose of the Study:

To quantitatively evaluate An-Cl covalency in AnCl62- complexes.
To investigate the role of 5f and 6d orbitals in actinide bonding.

Main Methods:

Cl K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy.
Relativistic density functional theory calculations.

Main Results:

Significant mixing observed between Cl 3p and An IV 5f/6d orbitals.
6d-orbitals showed more pronounced covalent bonding than 5f-orbitals.
An-Cl orbital mixing changed across the actinide series (Th to Pu).

Conclusions:

Actinide 6d-orbital covalency decreases from Th to Pu.
Actinide 5f-orbital covalency increases across the series.
This study provides quantitative insights into actinide bonding nature.