Covalent Bonding
Chapter 6
So Far…
•  The type of chemical bonding we have focused
on thus far has been bonding between metals
and nonmetals.
•  Nonmetals are able to form bonds, but HOW?
Covalent Bonds-Sharing Electrons
•  A covalent bond is a chemical bond in which two
atoms SHARE a pair of valence electrons.
•  When an atom of one non-metal shares one or
more electrons with an atom of another nonmetal (so they both have eight valence electrons)
this is a COVALENT BOND!
•  Here is how you would represent a covalent
bond:
Molecules of Elements
•  Two hydrogen atoms bonded together form a
unit called a molecule
•  A molecule is a neutral group of atoms that are
joined together by one or more covalent bonds.
•  Many atoms can share multiple covalent bonds.
If two elements share two pairs of valence
electrons it is called a double bond.
Examples:
Naming and Writing Molecular
Compounds
•  Remember: Molecules and molecular
compounds form by covalent bonding! THIS IS
DIFFERENT FROM IONIC BONDS!!!
Writing Covalent Formulas and Naming
•  The name and formula of a molecular compound describe the
type and number of atoms in a molecule of the compound.
•  When naming, the most metallic element appears first in the
name. These elements are farther to the left in the periodic
table.
•  If the two elements are in the same group, the more metallic
element is closer to the bottom of the group.
•  Just like in naming ionic compounds, we change the suffix of
the second element to “-ide”
•  The difference is that we need to use the PREFIXES FOR
NAMING COMPOUNDS.
Number of Atoms 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Prefix mono-­‐ di-­‐ tri-­‐ tetra-­‐ penta-­‐ hexa-­‐ hepta-­‐ octa-­‐ nona-­‐ deca-­‐