Talk:Covalent bond

From Academic Kids

I just have a question, maybe you all can help me!..What is an example of a Covalent Bond and explain what is happening at the atomic level during bonding?.... im doing a chemisrty paper and that is one of the questions, if you know the answer.. please tell mee!

Ahem...the picture seems to show a CH4 molecule but says "ethene". Don't want to mess with the picture (I'm not great at graphics) but would some other Most Honorable Wikipedian care to look after it? Kosebamse 09:55 Mar 23, 2003 (UTC)

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Covalent bonds are more common between non-metals, whereas ionic bonding is more common between two metal atoms or a metal and a non-metal atom.

What would be an example of an ionic bond between two metal atoms? This would require that a metal form an anion. Josh Cherry 22:24, 17 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Yep - I've corrected it.... --Ian 09:34, 29 Jan 2005 (UTC)

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== Cis and trans ==

Straight- or normal-chain (even-numbered), monoenoic components, i.e. with one double bond, make up a high proportion of the total fatty acids in most natural lipids. Normally the double bond is of the cis- or Z-configuration, although some fatty acids with trans- or E-double bonds are known.

This seems completely out of place to me. I'm tempted to remove it. Josh Cherry 22:31, 17 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I encourage you to indulge yourself, but I do think it would be nice to keep a linked mention of cis and trans in there somehow, because people encounter these terms all the time now with "trans fats" in the news, and so I think even somebody who is just at the stage of learning what a bond is would do well to have the difference between cis and trans included in their curiculum. Most people won't want to go on and delve into an article about IUPAC naming rules or about alkenes, and yet they're liable to encounter "trans fat" and "trans double bond" and wish they knew what it meant. The stuff about lipids belongs in an article about lipids or fats, I think. 168... 00:10, 18 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I've just axed it. This article is about covalent bonding, and that was talking very specifically about the bonding in fatty acids. cis and trans is something much more general than that, I don't think that the description there helped much. Iridium77 13:38, 22 May 2004 (UTC)

I don't know why this article says that covalent bonding is STRONGER than ionic bonding? This is incorrect... Unless Im mistaken

Covalent bonding is usually stronger than ionic bonding. Iridium77 13:39, 22 May 2004 (UTC)

Electron Dot Notation

Does anyone have plans for an Electron Dot Notation article? A seperate, improved article would be useful. It would need step by step instructions, ect. Alternatively, someone could link the Electron Dot Notation page to this one, but that would be slightly inadequate I'd do it myself, but I'm laking in time and skill. Pingveno 04:46, 1 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Such "step by step instructions" is more suitable at wikibooks:. --Menchi 04:58, 1 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Does much of anything even exist there? If so, then just link there. Pingveno 05:09, 1 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Also noticed that a page concerning the naming of covalent compounds, and indeed any naming conventions for all of Chemistry, would be extremely useful. Pingveno 05:24, 1 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Covalent radius

Covalent radius is made a redirect here, but this page does not contain the word "radius". Probably covalent radius should be made into real article, like they have it on other wikipedias: de:Kovalenter Radius, fr:Rayon de covalence and pl:Promień walencyjny, to name a few. --romanm (talk) 21:51, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Nobody complaint, so I at least made a stub instead of redirect. Please see covalent radius and try to improve it. --romanm (talk) 13:49, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Left, right, and up

The three shared orbitals in a triple bond can be imaged as left, right, and up.

I don't see what this is trying to convey. The two pi bonds are at right angles to each other, looking down the bond axis, and the sigma bond is symmetric about the axis, or straight ahead if you like. Where does "left, right, and up" come from? Which one is the sigma bond? Josh Cherry 03:55, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)

A quadruple bond as in C₂ would be a σ-bond and three π-bonds. The σ-bond forms directly between the two carbon atoms, but is shunted upwards by the repulsive force of the two π-bonds to the left and right (hence left, right and up). The third π-bond would have to bend all these bonds excessively, leading to instability. I am, however, working on an A-level view of how bonds form, so please correct me if I'm wrong. Thomas Winwood 23:04, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I don't doubt that there would be a steric issue with a fourth bond, but I still don't see the "left, right, and up" in a triple bond. The two π-bonds are at right angles to each other, so "left" and "right" doesn't make sense to me. I don't understand in what sense the σ-bond is "shunted upwards" either; if it's direction is to be called "up" in a triple bond, it's "up" in a single or double bond too. Josh Cherry 23:40, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I really think the reference to a quadruple bond for C₂ and Si₂ is mistaken, so we should remove it all. C₂ is normally described as having a double or maybe triple bond - it isn't explosive, merely unstable. Quadruple and higher bonds get described for esoteric transition metal compounds, but that's it. So, unless someone has good reference sources to show otherwise, I'll chop it soon!--Ian 14:02, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)