Christina Brewer
Sperry
Biology 1610-009
Chemical Bonding
Have you ever wondered why things make what they make? Or how things work? Well both of
these things involve different kinds of chemical bonding. There are weak bonds, covalent bonds and
ionic bonds. Each of these do different things that we need every day but to understand why these do
what they do you need understand electronegativity and polarity. Electronegativity is when an atom is
hogging the electron that is being shared between molecules. When one is hogging the electron it is
polar causing the sides to have different charges and when they are sharing the electron equally it is
non-polar.
Weak bonds sound like they aren’t important in biology but since they are weak it makes them
very important. They provide structure, temporary interactions and after they aren’t needed anymore
they are very easily reversible. Some weak bonds are Van Der Waals which temporary attractions
between non-polar molecules, ionic interactions is attraction between dissolved ions and hydrogen
bonds.
Hydrogen bonds also known as H bonds are an attraction between hydrogen and polar
molecules. This bond is weak but if you have a lot of them it becomes very strong. Hydrogen has a
valence of 4 which makes it attracted to oxygen and together they make water. Water is very polar so
it’s able to make hydrogen bonds easily. H bonds make ice float since it’s less dense than water. It also
has a high heat of vaporization which changes temperature slowly and lets animals and humans cool
themselves by sweating. Without H bonds making ice float the water would freeze at the bottom
instead of the top, which wouldn’t allow a proper thaw process to occur.
Covalent bond is when you have two or more atoms joined. These bonds are the bonds of life.
When you have this bond you form new shared orbitals with a different shape. When you change the
shape you are changing the function of the atom. The S and P orbital’s my hybridize creating specific
molecule shapes. Single and double covalent bonds are two different kinds of covalent bonds and both
are very strong. Single covalent (ex: O-H) form when one pair of valence electrons is being shared.
Having a single bond makes the bond flexible and able to bend and move. Double covalent (ex: O=C) is
when two pairs of valence electrons between atoms are being shared. Unlike the single bond the double
is solid it’s not flexible at all.
Ionic bonds forms from the attraction of two ions. Ions are atoms or molecules with a net
electric charge due to loss or gain of one or more electrons. Ionic bonds are strong but dissociate easily
with water. When you lose an electron the atom becomes positive and is called a Cat-ion. When it gains
an electron it is negatively charged and is called an Anion. Usually when this process happens is when
your outer most shell is almost full or almost empty and the easiest way to make that atom “happy” is to
give or get an electron without sharing it. A great example of this is with sodium and chloride. Sodium
gives one of its electrons to chloride which makes sodium positive and chloride negative which in the
end gives you sodium chloride. Since both have different charges it makes them drawn to each other
and this ionic bond holds them together.
From the strongest bonds to the weakest bonds they are all important. Without ionic bonding
there would be no way to hold two different atoms together to give us something like sodium chloride.
Hydrogen bonds make it so we still have sea life and covalent bonding is everything in between. This
bond is strong and holds everything together without breaking. Chemical bonding is important to life,
without even one of them we wouldn’t have half of the things we do now.