What do electronegativity values indicate?

1 Answer
Meave60
Dec 23, 2016

Electronegativity is the tendency of a bonded atom to attract shared electrons to itself. The greater the electronegativity, the greater the attraction. Differences in electronegativities between atoms can indicate the type of bond.

Explanation:

Electronegativity differences (Delta"EN") between bonded atoms can indicate bond character, i.e. nonpolar covalent, polar covalent, and ionic. Bonds with low Delta"EN", such as <=0.4 tend to be nonpolar covalent. Bonds with moderate Delta"EN", such as >=0.5<1.7 tend to be polar covalent. Bonds with a large Delta"EN", such as >=2.0.

There is a gap between the Delta"ENs" for polar and ionic bonds, which is handled in such a way that if the bonded atoms are nonmetals, the bond is considered polar covalent. If the bond is between a metal and a nonmetal, the bond is considered ionic.

There are differences of opinion within the academic community, mostly about the differences associated with higher values in determining polar and ionic bonds.

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