Question

Why do the pure covalent compounds not conduct electricity?

Answer 1

Covalent bond

• Atoms can combine by sharing the unpaired electrons in their outermost shell. Each of the two combining atoms contributes one electron to the electron pair which is needed for the bond formation and has an equal claim on the shared electron pair.

Example: ${\mathrm{O}}_2,{\mathrm{N}}_2,{\mathrm{H}}_2$

• Pure covalent compounds do not conduct electricity because they do not contain free electrons as charge carriers. Therefore, they are bad conductors of electricity.