Chemical bond

A chemical bond is an attractive interaction that holds atoms or ions together in a molecule or solid, typically through shared or transferred electrons.

Covalent bond: A bond formed when atoms share electron density. Shared electron density is the defining feature of this major bonding mode.
Valence electron: An electron in an atom's outer shell that can participate in bonding. These electrons are the main participants in ordinary chemical bonds.
Bond energy: The energy required to break a specified chemical bond, usually expressed per mole. Bond energies help estimate reaction energetics and compare bond strengths.
Hydrogen bond: An attraction involving hydrogen covalently bonded to an electronegative atom and another electronegative site. It is weaker than a typical covalent bond but strongly shapes molecular assemblies.
Bond order: A measure of the number of effective bonding interactions between two atoms. It summarizes bonding in many models, though some molecules resist a simple integer value.
Ionic bond: An electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged ions. Electron transfer can create the charged partners whose attraction binds ionic solids.
Atomic orbital: A quantum-mechanical description of an electron's spatial state in an atom. Orbital shapes and energies constrain how atoms share or redistribute electrons.
Bond length: The average distance between the nuclei of two bonded atoms. Bond length is a direct structural measure linked to bond order and strength.
London dispersion force: An attraction arising from correlated instantaneous fluctuations in electron distributions. It can hold particles together without the electron sharing or transfer typical of chemical bonds.
Resonance: A representation of electron delocalization using multiple contributing Lewis structures. It shows why a single localized bond diagram can fail to represent actual electron density.

Linked from 114 pages