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Chemical Bonds
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Purves et al. (1998) defines a chemical bond as an attractive force that links two atoms to form a molecule.

There are three types of chemical bonds:


Type of Bond
Basis of Bonding
Energy
Strength
Covalent Bond
Sharing of electron pairs
50-100 kcal/mol
^
Ionic Bond
Attraction of opposite charges
5-7 kcal/mol
^
Hydrogen Bond
Sharing of hydrogen atom
3-7 kcal/mol
^

In addition, there are interactions between non-polar molecules.
Example: Van der Waals interaction is an interaction of electron clouds, 1 kcal/mol hydrophonic interactions.

To see examples of all of these types of bonding, click on the animations in the column on the left.
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Created by: Cecilia Yu '07
Maintained by: CarolAnn Paul
Date Created: July 1, 2004
Last Modified: August 25, 2004
Page Expires: August 6, 2006