Question

What do you understand by the term covalency?

Answer 1

Covalency:

• In order to achieve a stable electronic configuration, electron pairs are shared between atoms of the same or different elements and it results in the formation of a molecule. This is called covalency.

Example:

• Nitrogen has $5$ valence electrons. It requires $3$ more electrons to attain a stable electronic configuration.
• It will share $3$ valence electrons with other nitrogen atom and results in the formation of ${\mathrm{N}}_2$.
• Therefore, the covalency for ${\mathrm{N}}_2$ is $3$.