the.com/covalent bond
Two atoms too insecure to let go, so they share electrons instead.
means A chemical bond where two atoms share one or more pairs of electrons, held together by mutual attraction to that shared cloud rather than one atom taking from the other.
from Built from Latin co- ('together') plus 'valent,' from Latin valere ('to be strong' or 'to have capacity'). 'Valence' entered chemistry in the 1800s to describe an atom's combining power — how many bonds it can form. 'Covalent' followed in the early 20th century, coined to describe bonds where atoms pool their combining power jointly rather than one borrowing it from another.
- the deal
- nuclei share electron pairs instead of trading them
- vs ionic
- no full transfer, so no net charge forms
- strength
- holds diamond together harder than most marriages
- electronegativity
- equal sharing only when both atoms want it equally