Chemistry is a long train, and you need to understand what’s in every car before you can call yourself a chemist. But what if you want to just jump on board so that you are in one car with the idea being that you can sit down, say “I made it”, and rest a few minutes before you begin exploring the other cars?
That car is Covalent Bonding.
We will begin with two atoms, hydrogen and carbon. Every atom is a nucleus with electrons around it. Hydrogen has one electron and it would like to form an agreement with another atom so that it can share an electron coming from that other atom; having two electrons is what hydrogen prefers.
Two hydrogens can approach each other, each now having an electron that came from the other. The two electrons form a Covalent Bond. This forms a molecule, H2.
Carbon has six electrons, and it wants 4 more. If four hydrogens are nearby, the carbon will form a bond with each of them, to get the four more electrons that it wants. Each of those hydrogen’s is happy because the carbon provided the second electron that the hydrogen wanted. This makes methane, CH4.
If everything above makes sense, then you are now on the train.
Bonus Features
1- Ionic Bonding
Covalent Bonding occurs when two atoms both need more electrons to reach a preferred number of electrons. Some electrons I would actually prefer to lose one electron to reach a preferred number and if one of these was to meet up with an atom that wants an electron it will actually give that extra electron so both become satisfied.
The atom that gives away an electron becomes positively charged. The atom that receives electron becomes negatively charged. The word ion is used for atoms that have become charged.
There is an attraction between the two ions because one is positive and one is negative and this attraction is called an ionic bond.
2- Can Carbon Bond With Carbon?
Yes. We said earlier that a carbon wants to pick up four more electrons by sharing. 2 carbon atoms can share one electron with the other the form of covalent bond and after this happens each of them wants three more electrons thus, six hydrogens can come and help them out. This forms Ethane, C2H6
Rob Sterling 