Do highly electronegative atoms form covalent bonds?

1 Answer
anor277
Feb 24, 2017

Many elements of high electronegativity will form covalent bonds.....

Explanation:

And I can name three without thinking:

#"fluorine; oxygen; and nitrogen"#, which are of course the binuclear molecules #X_2#, #O=O#, and #N-=N#.

Electronegativity is conceived to be ability of an atom involved in a chemical bond to polarize electron density towards itself, resulting in a polar bond, where electron density is UNEQUALLY shared. For homonuclear diatomic molecules, given that the elements have EQUAL electronegativity, there should be no charge separation, no polarity in the #"element"-"element"# bond.

On the other hand for #OF_2#, which is an isolable molecule, the dipole may be described as #""^(+delta)OF_2^(delta-)#. Why?

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