Question

Covalently bonded molecules are either non-polar or (di) polar. With respect to sharing electrons, what is meant by a polarized covalent bond?

Answer 1

Polar covalent bonding is a chemical bond where a pair of electrons in a molecule is unequally shared between two atoms. In a polar covalent bond, the electrons are not equally shared as one atom attracts bonding electrons more than the other atom.

A  polar covalent bond exists when atoms of different elements with different electronegativities share electrons in a covalent bond.

Explanation with an example:

Consider a HCl molecule.Each atom in HCl requires one more electron to form an inert gas electron configuration. As Chlorine has a higher electronegativity than hydrogen and therefore chlorine atom’s attraction for the bonding electrons is higher than that of hydrogen ,these bonding electrons are shared unequally in a polar covalent bond

The unequal sharing of the bonding pair results in a partial negative charge on the chlorine atom and a partial positive charge on the hydrogen atom as shown

Thank you.