Covalent Bonding

Covalent bonding occurs when two non-metal atoms share one or more pairs of electrons. Unlike ionic bonding, where electrons are transferred, covalent bonding involves a mutual sharing that allows both atoms to achieve a stable electron configuration. This type of bonding is found in elements like H₂, O₂, and N₂, and in compounds such as water, carbon dioxide, and methane.

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Why Atoms Share Electrons

When two non-metal atoms approach each other, neither has a low enough ionisation energy to simply lose electrons. Instead, their atomic orbitals overlap, and each atom contributes one electron to a shared pair. The shared electrons are attracted to both nuclei simultaneously, and this attraction holds the atoms together.

The covalent bond is the electrostatic attraction between the shared pair of electrons and the nuclei of both atoms. This is the key definition — notice that it is still fundamentally an electrostatic interaction, just like ionic bonding, but the arrangement of charges is different.

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Single, Double, and Triple Bonds

Atoms can share one, two, or three pairs of electrons: