Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: MattA147 on January 09, 2013, 12:59:04 PM
-
Hi guys, essentially I was taught in Chemistry class the following things...
1. That in order for covalent bonding to occur you need at least two non-metals that will fill the other atoms valence energy levels with electrons so all the atoms involved have an inert noble gas electron configuration.
2. In metallic bonding the metals loose there valence electrons and bond whilst the lost electrons become delocalised and are free to move around inside the metal.
Why can't then any atom bond with any other atom but just have delocalised electrons if the electron configuration doesn't work out?
Why does Graphene/Graphite have delocalised electrons even though it is bonded covalently?
Thanks for your time any help would be greatly appreciated. :)
-
Hrm ... you seem to be saying why doesn't metallic bonding default when a covalent or ionic bond doesn't form. But metallic bonds only form between metals. Which does happen, just about any two metals will metallicly bond, that's a simple mixture or solution, an alloy.
-
OK thanks for your comment. :)
Why is it then that metallic bonds only form between metals?
-
Metallic bonds form with other metals due to the way their orbitals overlap. For example, when Sodium forms metallic bonds, it's 3s orbital touches other 3s orbitals, allowing for the delocalization of the electrons.
I don't know if that answers your question in full, but hopefully it helps to clarify!
-
Thank you very much for that post, it doesn't quite answer my question in full but has definetly given me the info to take it to the next step. Thank you very much. :)
-
Metals want to give up electrons to attain the next lower noble gas configuration. If there was something around that would take the electron, they would be perfectly happy to give up the electron and stay positive. Non-metals don't - they want extra electrons to reach the next higher noble gas configuration. So when two metal atoms are bonding together they are both trying to get rid of the electrons, and if the orbitals can overlap, the electrons can be delocalized into a generalized pool of electrons spread throughout the metal. When two non-metals bind together, they are both struggling for the pair of electrons, and the pair stays localized between them while they play tug-of-war for them.
Okay, that's a really anthropomorphic description, but it always helped me.
-
Thank you that was just the answer that I was looking for! Thanks to all who contributed it means a lot. :D