Chemical Bonding

Why bonds form, ionic, covalent, and metallic bonding, polarity, and the energetics of bonding.

Intended level

Intermediate — after Atomic Structure and Periodicity.

Prerequisites

• atomic-structure
• periodic-table-trends

Ordered lessons

1. why bonds form
2. ionic covalent metallic bonding
3. bond polarity
4. lewis symbols structures
5. formal charge resonance
6. octet exceptions
7. bond energy length order

Related formulas and calculators

• $bond-energy$ — see Formula: bond-energy
• $lattice-energy$ — see Formula: lattice-energy
• lewis-structure
• bond-energy

Only links to real, published tools are shown. Placeholders are not linked.

Common misconceptions

• Ionic bonds are stronger than covalent in all contexts.
• Electrons are fully transferred and never shared.
• Metals share electrons exactly like covalent molecules.

Related resources

• Constants — sourced physical constants with version stamps.
• Laboratory Safety — PPE, hazards, RAMP.
• Glossary — definitions for key terms in this topic.
• Sources and Data — how sources are versioned and cited.

Curriculum mappings

This topic maps to external frameworks stored in src/content/curriculum/. Never implies official affiliation.

• AP Chemistry 1.1 / IB Chemistry 2.1 (see /curriculum/ap-chem-1-1 and file src/content/curriculum/ap-chem-1-1.md).
• Framework version and source URL recorded per mapping; review date 2026-08-21.

Review and source metadata

• Author: Chemistry Fundamentals Editorial Team (chem-team)
• Reviewer: Dr. Example Reviewer (chemistry reviewer — transparent placeholder, see /editorial-policy)
• Last reviewed: 2026-08-21
• Review due: 2027-08-21
• Sources: NIST Reference Placeholder (nist-2022, 2022-CODATA). Placeholder reference — replace with actual sourced reference per lesson.

Printable summary

Summary card (PDF) — coming soon — print styles preserve equations and tables.

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