Chemical bonding

Chemical bonding, any of the interactions that account for the association of atoms into molecules, ions, crystals, and other stable species that make up the familiar substances of the everyday world. When atoms approach one another, their nuclei and electrons interact and tend to distribute themselves in space in such a way that the total energy is lower than it would be in any alternative arrangement. If the total energy of a group of atoms is lower than the sum of the energies of the component atoms, they then bond together and the energy lowering is the bonding energy.

The ideas that helped to establish the nature of chemical bonding came to fruition during the early 20th century after the electron had been discovered and quantum mechanics had provided a language for the description of the behaviour of electrons in atoms. However, even though chemists need quantum mechanics to attain a detailed quantitative understanding of bond formation, much of their pragmatic understanding of bonds is expressed in simple, intuitive models. These models treat bonds as primarily of two kinds—namely, ionic and covalent. The type of bond that is most likely to occur between two atoms can be predicted on the basis of the location of the elements in the periodic table, and to some extent the properties of the substances so formed can be related to the type of bonding.

A key concept in a discussion of chemical bonding is that of the molecule. Molecules are the smallest units of compounds that can exist. One feature of molecules that can be predicted with reasonable success is their shape. Molecular shapes are of considerable importance for understanding the reactions that compounds can undergo, and so the link between chemical bonding and chemical reactivity is discussed briefly in this article.

Although simple models of bonding are useful as rules of thumb for rationalizing the existence of compounds and the physical and chemical properties and structures of molecules, they need to be justified by appealing to more sophisticated descriptions of bonding. Moreover, there are some aspects of molecular structure that are beyond the scope of the simple theories. To achieve this insight, it is necessary to resort to a fully quantum mechanical description. In practice, these descriptions entail heavy reliance on computers. Such numerical approaches to the chemical bond provide important information about bonding.

This article begins by describing the historical evolution of the current understanding of chemical bonding and then discusses how modern theories of the formation of chemical bonds have emerged and developed into a powerful description of the structure of matter. After the historical introduction, qualitative models of bonding are discussed, with particular attention given to the formation of ionic and covalent bonds and the correlation of the latter with molecular shapes. The more sophisticated quantum mechanical approaches to bond formation are then described, followed by a survey of a number of special cases that raise interesting problems or lead to important insights.

For a detailed discussion of the structure and properties of atoms, see the article atom. Chemical compounds are surveyed in the article chemical compound, and the elements are described in the article chemical element.