Types of Chemical Bonds

In the early 18th century, Isaac Newton mentioned about the force that bonds atoms in his writings known as “Query 31″. Later in the early 20th century, Gilbert Newton Lewis, an American chemist revealed a chemical bond is formed because electrons of one atom interact with electrons of another atom.



You must be aware of the fact the building blocks of all substances are atoms. Have you ever wondered what holds the atoms together? A strong attractive force known as chemical bond holds the atoms of all substances together. Imagine a world where there exists only individual atoms, it would be nothing less than a mass chaos.



You would be eager to know how a chemical bond is formed? You can rightly say, a chemical bond is formed when valence electrons of two atoms interact with each other. An electron that resides in the outermost electron shell of an atom and interacts with the similar electron of an atom is known as valence electrons.

Chemical Bond Types



There are many types of chemical bonds. However, the three main types are ionic bonds, covalent bonds and metallic bonds.

• Ionic Bond:

An ionic bond is an electrostatic interaction between atoms that have a huge electronegative difference. An ionic bond is formed when an atom accepts or donates one or more valence electrons to another atom. A negative ion (Anion) and a positive ion (Cation) is formed during the chemical ionic bonding.

• Covalent Bond:

When a sharing of valence electrons happens between atoms, a covalent bond is formed. A polar covalent bond is formed when two atoms do not share the valence electrons equally.

• Metallic Bond:

A chemical metallic bond is formed when two metallic atoms share the valence electrons. A point noteworthy is, the valence electronics of any region of the metal atoms can be shared to form metallic bonds.

Examples of the Three Types of Chemical Bonds

Covalent Bond


In covalent bond the atoms share the electrons. Let’s take the example of water. A single water molecule is H2O, i.e. It consists of two hydrogen atoms and a single oxygen atom. A water molecule is formed when an oxygen atom and a hydrogen atom donate one electron to form a chemical bond. This type of bonding is known as single covalent bond.



In a double covalent bond two valence electrons are shared. For instance, oxygen in air does not exist as a single atom. The two oxygen atoms share 2 valence electrons each to form O2.

Ionic Bond


An ionic bond is formed when an atom loses a valence electron to another atom to form a cation and an anion. Take the example of sodium chloride also known as “common salt”. The formula of sodium chloride is NaCl. Sodium chloride is formed when an electron of sodium atom is transferred to chlorine atom. This chemical bonding gives Na+ and Cl-. Since the electrons are of opposite charges, they are attracted to each other and the end result is the formation of NaCl.

Metallic Bond


Metallic bond is formed in metals. Let’s take the example of copper. The copper atoms are arranged in a certain manner in a copper metal. Here the valence electrons are free to move around in a piece of copper metal. These valence electrons are attracted towards the positive cores of copper. This results in metallic bonding.



You must know there is chemical bonding between various elements including precious stones such as diamonds. Every object in this universe is formed due to chemical bonding.

Types of Chemical Bonds