Electronegativity and Bond Polarity

If the bonding electrons are not shared equally in a covalent bond, then the bond will be polar. To quantify how polar a bond will be, we introduce the concept of Electronegativity.

Electronegativity - the ability of an atom in a molecule to attract electrons to itself.

For example, in the HF molecule, the bonding electrons spend more time on the fluorine than the hydrogen because the fluorine has a higher electronegativity than hydrogen. We indicate this slight excess of negative charge on the fluorine with the symbol δ^-:

As a result of this unequal sharing of bonding electrons, the HF molecule will have an electric dipole moment. The electric dipole moment is a vector quantity and is represented by the symbol μ. In the case of HF, μ will lie along the direction of the H-F bond:

The strength of the electric dipole moment across a bond will be proportional to the difference in electronegativity of the two atoms forming the bond. There are a number of ways to quantify atom electronegativities. Below are a few numbers based on an approach by Linus Pauling.

The general trend of Electronegativity in the periodic table is