This chapter explains how covalent bonds are formed, and goes on to explore their properties. You will learn that covalent compounds are also called molecular compounds. You will also learn that paramagnetism and intermolecular attractions are properties of some molecular compounds that can be explained by their structures. Finally, you will learn that the physical properties of a compound depend on the type of bonding it displays—in particular, on whether it is ionic or covalent.

In this chapter, you will learn: to use electron dot structures to show the formation of covalent bonds to describe coordinate covalent bonding, resonance structures, and exceptions to the octet rule to describe the molecular orbital theory of covalent bonding to use VSEPR theory to predict shapes of covalently bonded molecules to use electronegativity to classify a bond