Electronegativity
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Badger15 (talk | contribs) at 19:53, March 4, 2009. It may differ significantly from current revision.
Electronegativity is a measure of how strongly an atom in a molecule attracts extra electrons to itself.
The difference in electronegativity can cause different bonds to form. An example is that as chlorine is much more electronegative than hydrogen, hydrogen chloride has a permanent dipole, as the chlorine attracts the electrons being shared to a greater extent.
Instantaneous dipole bonds are formed when bonded atoms are of similar electronegativity, meaning that the electrons are more or less shared evenly between atoms, and example being chlorine (Cl2). --Badger15 14:53, 4 March 2009 (EST)