Chemical bond
Atoms of all elements except of the inert gasses have a tendency to combine either with each other or with the atoms of other elements to form cluster of atoms with definite composition. A cluster formed may be either a molecule or an ion. The attraction between the atoms forming the cluster is called a chemical bond.
So, a chemical bond is defined as an attractive force that holds two or more atoms together in a stable molecule or in an ion.
Types of Bonds
Chemical bonds that have been found are of four types. They are as follows.
- Electrovalent or ionic bond: This types of bonds are established by the transfer of one or more valence electrons from one atom to the other.
- Co-valent bond: This types of bonds are established by the sharing of one, two or three electron pairs between the combining atoms.
- Co-ordinate co-valent bond: A covalent in which both electrons of the shared electron pair comes from one of the two atoms is called a coordinate bond.
- Metallic bond: It is a typical bond and is formed in metals. In this bond a variable number of electrons are shared simultaneously by a variable number of atoms of the metal.
All these four bonds are called strong bond. There are some weaker bond also, namely hydrogen bond and Vander Walls interaction.