Whats electron configuration and how does it relate to bonding?
Electronic Configuration definition - "A statement describing the populations of electronic energy sublevels of an atom."
Electronic configuration is basically writing out how many electrons an atom contains and which sub-shell they belong too (S, P, or D usually, this can go higher but I am not sure at what level chemistry your at. Known as SPD notation.) The amount of electrons which are found in each sub-shell affect its bond energy and thus its bond strength.
eg of electronic configuration, Na (11electrons)
1s(2), 2s(2), 2p(6), 3s(1)
Bond energy depends on 4-5 different things:
1. Full electron sub-shells have more stability associated with it, so require more energy to break the bond.
2. Half full electron sub-shells have increased stability associated with them, so require more energy to break the bond.
3. Progressively as you remove more and more electrons from the same element - it takes an increasing amount of energy to break each bond, this is due to the nuclear charge remaining the same while the number of electrons drops, ie, greater pull on smaller number of electrons.
4. If you are comparing the bond strength between two atoms, generally as you move down a group the bonding is weaker - due to an increased distance from the atomic charge, and also greater shielding from other sub-shells.
5. Bond strength also depends on Electronegativity - " Electronegativity is a measure of the tendency of an atom to attract a bonding pair of electrons within a covalent bond." and the polarity of the substance.
Hydrogen bonding - only occurs between in very electronegative substances ie, a substance which contains Nitrogen, Oxygen or Flourine ( N, O or F). These bonds only occur in polar substances and should if they are there, should be the only bond taken into account for bond strength (they have a higher than expected bond strength because hydrogen bonds are very hard to break due to strong electrostatic forces.)
Dipole Dipole reactions - These occur in POLAR substances and occur when the substance lacks the N, O or F, group necessary for Hydrogen bonds, these bonds are indicated by (Delta -) and (Delta +), I can't do the greek delta symbol on this sadly. Dipole bonds occur when the pair of electrons within the covalent bond move further towards one of the elements, making it a (delta -) element and the other a (delta +) element respectively.
Van der waal forces of attraction - occur in NON-POLAR substances. These forces are relatively the weakest of the 3, but still give a higher than expected melting and boiling point the substance when they form.
Related subject: Ionisation energy - "energy required to remove 1mole of electrons from one mole of gaseous atoms to produce 1 mole of gaseous uni-positive ions"
As stated on #3 as you remove electrons its progressively harder to remove electrons, here's a graph which might help you understand the relationship between no. of electrons and stability. (ionisation graph for 11Na, same as earlier eg)
http://www.webelements.com/_media/elements/ionisation_energies/Na.gif
Might have missed a few things, and i'm also not 100% sure this is the level of chemistry your at, but I thought I would post it anyway and try and help you a little bit.
Get back to me if this helped
