Question

How do you determine if a covalent bond is polar or nonpolar?

Answer 1

Determination of Covalent bond -

Polar bond-

• If the difference in electronegativity of combining atoms is greater than 0.4 then the bond is polar.
• If the electronegativity difference is greater the more ionic the bond is, bond that is partially ionic are polar covalent bonds.
• For example-$\mathrm{H}-\mathrm{Cl}$, the electronegativity of ($\mathrm{Cl}$) is 3.0 while of($\mathrm{H}$)atom is 2.1.

Non-polar bond-

• If the difference in electronegativity is less than 0.4, the bond is non-polar.
• For example- in ($\mathrm{H}-\mathrm{H}$) each have an electronegativity value of 2.1 therefore, the covalent bond between them is considered non-polar.