Bond Length

[Lillian]

I wasn't really clear on this from the lectures, but what is the significance of bond length in determining the stability of structures? And what does a shorter bond length really entail?

[Hannah Alltucker 3L]

When bond length is shorter, the greater the energy in the bond. The greater the energy, the harder it is for that bond to be broken apart, meaning it is far more stable than a lower (or longer) bond. A shorter bond just means that the atoms are a lot closer together, and therefore when we see double and triple bonds, we can say that they are shorter and harder to break than a single bond.

[StephanieGrigorian2J]

Shorter bond lengths mean that the bond is much stronger because it's harder to break and its less reactive. Longer bond lengths are much weaker and are easily broken. Longer bond lengths are due to the atomic radius of a specific atom. For example, when comparing an H-F bond with a H-I bond, Iodine has a much larger atomic radius when compared to fluorine and is therefore going to be farther away from the hydrogen atom due to its size. This larger distance of the H-I bond makes the bond length much longer and therefore a much weaker bond. There is going to be less energy required to break the weaker H-I bond.

[Jaden Kwon 3C]

A shorter bond length is more stable because shorter bond lengths have higher energy which is harder to break and therefore more stable.

[America Ramirez 3H]

Bond length correlates to strength. If there is a shorter bond length that means that the bond is stronger because more energy is needed to break it. Longer bond length means that there's a greater distance between the atoms so it takes less energy to try to break them.

[Katie Phan 1K]

Bond length is basically associated with the energy required to break the bonds. Bonds that are shorter are stronger since the atoms/molecules are more tightly held, making it harder to break them apart.

[Gabriel Nitro 1E]

Hi,

The relationship is that bond length is inversely proportional to bond strength. Therefore, if you are comparing two bonds and one is shorter than the prior, the latter has a higher bond energy.

Hope this helps! :)