(BCR) Chemical Bonds Lesson

Chemical Bonds

What do this lump of coal, diamond, and what we call pencil lead, which is not really lead at all, have in common? All three substances are forms of carbon. Are you surprised that one element can exist in forms that have such different properties? Do you know what explains it? The answer is chemical bonds. Carbon atoms chemically bond together in different ways to form these three substances.

When you look at everything around you and what it is made of, you will realize that atoms seldom exist on their own. More often, the things around us are made up of different atoms that have been joined together. This is called chemical bonding. Chemical bonding is one of the most important processes in chemistry because it allows all sorts of different molecules and combinations of atoms to form, which then make up the objects in the complex world around us.

A chemical bond is formed when atoms are held together by attractive forces. This attraction occurs when electrons are shared between atoms, or when electrons are exchanged between the atoms that are involved in the bond. The sharing or exchange of electrons takes place so that the outer energy levels of the atoms involved are filled, making the atoms more stable. If an electron is shared, it means that it will spend its time moving in the electron orbitals around both atoms. If an electron is exchanged it means that it is transferred from one atom to another. In other words, one atom gains an electron while the other loses an electron.

The type of bond that is formed depends on the elements involved. In this lesson, we will be looking at ionic and covalent bonding.  

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