Bonding In Hydrogen Atoms

Nuclei of two atoms are positively charged and the surrounding electronic cloud is negatively charged. When two atoms come close together they experience both attractive and repulsive forces. If the sum of attractive forces is greater than the sum of repulsive forces then a bond will be established, and molecule is formed. On the other hand if the sum of repulsive forces is greater than the sum of attractive forces then no bond will be formed and atoms or molecules will remain free.

The simplest of the molecules is H-H bond

Hydrogen atom has 1 proton in the nucleus with a positive charge and one electron in its first orbit that has a negative charge.

Imagine a two hydrogen atoms close together so that they experience mutual attractive and repulsive forces. Forces of repulsion: 1. Between two nuclei 2. Between two electrons

so there are two forces of repulsion

Forces of attraction: 1. Between nucleus of atom no.1 and its electron 2. Between nucleus of atom no. 1 and electron of the atom no. 2 3. Between nucleus of atom number 2 and electron of atom no. 2 4. Between nucleus of atom no. 2 and electron of atom no. 1

If you now sum up all the forces of attraction and repulsion this can predict whether a bond between two atoms will be formed or not.

Eq.A. Net Force=Sum of forces of attraction -Sum of forces of repulsion

You can see from the explanation above the sum of forces of attraction is 4 and that of forces of repulsion is 2 if we substitute these values in Eq. A then

Net force=4-2 =2

This shows us that there two extra attractive forces when two hydrogen atoms come close together so a bond will be formed.

This concept can be elaborated for other atoms as well but as the number of shells and electrons increase there are other factors that would also affect the bonding.

I. Sheilding effect II. Sizes of atoms III.Electron affinities IV. Electronegativities V. Number of electrons available for bonding in the outer most shell of an atom.