hi please help urgent!!!!!!!!! covalent bonding?

Question

why is the understanding of a covalent bond useful? provide several reasons, including general or specific examples

thanks!!!!!

Answer 1

Covalent bonds are forces that hold atoms together. The forces are formed when the atoms of a molecule share electrons. You will learn more about the chemistry of covalent bond formation when you take Chemistry 1. For biological purposes there are several things to remember about covalent bonds

Covalent bonds represent chemical potential energy that can be used in biological reactions. An example of this are the phosphoanhyride bonds of ATP.


The angles formed between covalently bonded atoms are specific and defined. This means that biological molecules formed with covalent bonds have definite and predicable shapes.


In biological systems, covalent bonds are called strong bonds. This means that they are not normally broken under biological conditions unless by enzymic catalysis. This is in opposition to weak bonds like hydrogen and ionic bonds which are easily broken under normal biological conditions of temperature and pressure.


There is a type of covalent bond called a polar covalent bond. In Biological systems, polar covalent bonds are important because these kinds of bonds allow the formation of another kind of weak bond called a hydrogen bond. Water is an example of a molecule that has polar covalent bonds and engages in hydrogen bonding.


In addition to polar covalent bonds, there are nonpolar covalent bonds. In biological systems, if a molecules has a predominance of nonpolar covalent bonds, that substance is hydrophobic.

Answer 2

There are two kinds of chemical bonds, ionic and covalent, and they have to do with the way two or more atoms share electrons.
In ionic bonds, electrons tend to stay around one atom. In covalent bonding, electrons are shared. It's not really an either/or situation, though. There are "polar" covalent bonds in which one atom still shares its electrons, but they still tend to hang around one atom more than the other.

Why is it important? A number of analytical instruments, like a NMR spectrometer, take advantage of the different bonds between atoms to help identify the molecule's structure. Also, the hardest substance known, diamond, is made of pure carbon held together with covalent bonds. The biggie, though, is the differences between the bonds affect how the molecule behaves chemically, for instance, whether it dissolves in water, how it will react with other compounds, the shape of the molecule, etc.

Answer 3

I suppose there are many reasons that an understanding of a covalent bond is important, but for me, the most critical is to explain solubilities. For example, the old "oil and water" don't mix is a truism explained by polarity which is a direct effect of covalent bonding. While both oil and water are individually covalently bonded, (C-H) and (H-O) bonds, the covalent or shared electron pair bonds between carbon and hydrogen produce a non-polar covalent bond while the hydrogen-oxygen bond is strongly polar. It is polar-nonpolar difference between oil and water which causes them NOT to mix. You may have heard the adage "like dissolves like." Well, polar substances are dissolved in other polar substances and vice-versa. Hope that helps.

Answer 4

Understanding the covalent bond is necessary to understanding how most chemical structures are constructed. This is useful if we want to either modify the bonding, create our own structures or understand physical measurements.

Most reaction chemistry is done to break or create covalent bonds, especially in organic chemistry. Vibrational spectroscopy requires an understanding of various covalent bonds. Often physical properties of solids arise from their covalent bonds.

Hope this helps. Kind of a broad question.

Answer 5

It is useful to understand the shape of the molecules

Example CH4

If you know that the four bonds are equivalent you must put the atom of carbon at the center of a tetrahedron where The Hydrogens are at the summit