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In the last post in this series I discussed covalent bonding, the type of bonding involved in most biologically relevant compounds. Covalent bonds:
In the last post in this series I discussed covalent bonding, the type of bonding involved in most biologically relevant compounds. Covalent bonds:
- Are formed between non-metals
- Are formed such that each constituent atom "feels complete" with 8 e's in its valence shell (H = 2e's)
- Involve the overlap of valence orbitals
- Involve the sharing of unpaired electrons to form bonding pairs
- Can involve one, two or three pairs of shared electrons to form single, double or triple covalent bonds
In this post we'll discuss one of the concepts that makes the world go round. Well, it's not responsible for the rotation of the earth, but in terms of properties of compounds -- how they behave with other compounds, react, have a propensity towards oxidation, etc. and molecular structure (e.g. think protein folding), polarity plays a key role. And it all starts with the unequal sharing of electrons in covalent bonds.
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