Covalent Character

[Harrington Bubb3A]

I am confused on what it means to have covalent character and how to tell which atoms have more covalent character than ionic character and what things will indicate this character.

[Vy Le 1G]

Hello, in order to figure out which has covalent or ionic character, you would have to look at the electronegativity. Remember the more different the electronegativity, the more likely it is to have ionic characteristics. Hope this helped!

[Jericho Ansay 1C]

Atoms that have more covalent character relative to other atoms would have smaller differences in electronegativity in a bond. With higher differences in electronegativity, then you would get atoms in a bond that is more ionic than covalent. To have covalent character means that atoms partially share electrons in a bond.

[Mason_Hoppe_1A]

Ionic and covalent character just refer to how much an electron pair is shared between two atoms. More covalent character means the electrons are more evenly shared which more ionic character means that the electrons are more close to one or the other atoms. All molecules contain both ionic and covalent character, the closer the two elements involved are on the periodic table, the greater the covalent character. This has to do with the trend in electronegativity because if two atoms have more similar electronegatively, they will pull with more equal amounts of force upon the electron and it will be more shared.

[Emily Chen 1G]

Covalent bond mean that electrons are shared relatively evenly between the two atoms of the bond. For example, an F-F fluorine molecule would possess a covalent bond because each F attracts electrons equally. Ionic bond means that electrons are shared relatively unevenly between the two atoms of the bond. For example, NaCl possesses an ionic bond where electrons are pulled more to the Cl (creating dipoles). Ionic bonds tend to be associated with salts.

[Joan Moci 1J]

Covalent character means that the electrons are being shared between atoms while ionic character means that electrons have been transferred to one atom. All ionic bonds have some covalent character meaning that the electrons are still somewhat shared as they are attracted to the positive charge of the cation, distorting the electron cloud. Typically, larger anions will be more polarizable ( have more covalent character) as they have a large electron cloud where electrons aren't held as tightly and therefore the electron cloud can be distorted and the electrons somewhat shared. For covalent bonds, if the bond is polar that means that electrons aren't shared equally, meaning that the bond has some ionic character as well.

[Nick Oscarson 1K]

Determining if an atom has covalent character or ionic character can be done by looking at the electronegativity difference. When atoms have similar electronegativity values, the atom will express covalent character, while big differences in electronegativity demonstrate ionic character.
We can also note how covalent character refers to the partial sharing of electrons.

This video gives examples and compares them to one another based on their ionic and covalent characters! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0AlDNvfR3w