Why are single bonds stronger than double?

1 Answer
anor277
Jun 2, 2016

You mean #"why are double bonds stronger than single?"#

Explanation:

The modern chemical bond is conceived to be a region of high electron density between two positively charged nuclei, such nucleus-nucleus repulsion is minimized and a net attractive force results. For a #C-C# single bond, this electron density is directly between the carbon nuclei. A double bond has (i) this electron density between the nuclei; and (ii) electron density above and below the plane of the single bond. This electron density results in a greater attractive force.

As a chemist, as a physical scientist, we should put some numbers to this argument. See this site for further discussion, and quantitative data.

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