The strength of an ionic bond is indicated by the lattice energy or the change in energy that takes place when separated gaseous ions are packed together to form an ionic solid. The greater the charges of the ions the greater the lattice energy will be. The Covalent Chemical Bond A. Bonds result from the tendency of a system to seek its lowest possible energy. Model A. A molecule is composed of atoms that are bound together by sharing pairs of electrons using the atomic orbitals of the bound atoms. Pairs that are localized on the atom are called lone pairs while pairs that are in between atoms are called bonding pairs.
Any atom really wants to achieve a noble gas configuration.
Every atom wants to have eight electrons around it as described by the octet rule, except for the Hydrogen atom that only wants two. C. Resonance involves several acceptable Lewis structures for a molecule. The variation in these structures is usually the double bond in different places. The actual structure is actually a mixture of all the resonance structures. D. Formal charge is used to determine if one structure is more stable than the other is.