Definition
Linus Pauling famously described a chemical bond as “whatever is convenient to the chemist to define as a bond” (Pauling, 1960). In the simplest terms, a chemical bond is merely an attraction between atoms in a substance containing an aggregation of two or more atoms. However, while all bonds are based on the attraction between positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons, quantum mechanical effects governing the spatial distribution of electrons give rise to a wide range of bond properties and a continuum of bond types. The standard types include covalent, metallic, ionic, hydrogen, and van der Waals bonds (Gillespie and Popelier, 2001).
Traditional Valence Bonds
The strongest chemical bonds (covalent, metallic, and ionic) are sometimes called “valence bonds,” due to the fact that they are formed when partially filled valence atomic orbitals combine to create molecular orbitals (Albright et al., 2013). The average spatial distribution of electrons (the...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Albright, T. A., Burdett, J. K., and Whangbo, M.-H., 2013. Orbital Interactions in Chemistry. Hoboken: Wiley, 819 p.
Batsanov, S. S., and Batsanov, A. S., 2012. Introduction to Structural Chemistry. Dordrecht: Springer, 542 p.
Brown, I. D., 2002. The Chemical Bond in Inorganic Chemistry: The Bond Valence Model. New York: Oxford University Press, 278 p.
Burdett, J. K., 1997. Chemical Bonds: A Dialog. Chichester: Wiley, 166 p.
Faure, G., 1998. Principles and Applications of Geochemistry. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 600 p.
Gillespie, R. J., and Hargittai, I., 1991. The VSEPR Model of Molecular Geometry. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 248 p.
Gillespie, R. J., and Popelier, P. L. A., 2001. Chemical Bonding and Molecular Geometry: From Lewis Structures to Electron Densities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 268 p.
Housden, M. P., and Pyper, N. C., 2007. The noble gas dimers as a probe of the energetic contributions of dispersion and short-range electron correlation in weakly-bound systems. Molecular Physics, 105, 2353–2361.
IUPAC, 1997. Compendium of Chemical Terminology. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications, p.
Johnston, V. H. S., 1966. Gas Phase Reaction Rate Theory. New York: Ronald Press, 372 p.
Krapp, A., and Frenking, G., 2007. Is this a chemical bond? A theoretical study of Ng2@C60 (Ng = He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe). Chemistry A European Journal, 13, 8256–8270.
Luo, Y.-R., 2007. Comprehensive Handbook of Chemical Bond Energies. New York: CRC Press, 1657 p.
Pauling, L., 1960. The Nature of the Chemical Bond. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 644 p.
Popelier, P. L. A., 2000. Atoms in Molecules: An Introduction. Essex: Pearson Education, 164 p.
Rohrer, G. S., 2001. Structure and Bonding in Crystalline Materials. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 540 p.
Sanderson, R. T., 1976. Chemical Bonds and Bond Energy. New York: Academic, 218 p.
Steiner, T., 2002. The hydrogen bond in the solid state. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 41, 48–76.
Steiner, T., and Saenger, W., 1994. Lengthening of the covalent O–H bond in O–H…O hydrogen bonds re-examined from low-temperature neutron diffraction data of organic compounds. Acta Crystallographica, B50, 348–357.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this entry
Cite this entry
Bickmore, B.R., Wander, M.C.F. (2016). Chemical Bonds. In: White, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geochemistry. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39193-9_4-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39193-9_4-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-39193-9
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences