COVALENT BONDS As we have talked about, covalent bonds are those that involve the sharing of electrons between atoms of the same molecule. Glucose is a sugar that is involved in multiple covalent bonds. This is also true of the bonding in water. There are orbitals around each atom that contain electrons. In covalent bonding, the atoms form a new orbital that contains the shared electrons. Figure 4 shows the covalent bonding seen in the methane molecule, which is an organic molecule not seen in most organisms:
Figure 4.
Covalent bonding changes the characteristics of the molecule. At normal room temperature and normal atmospheric pressure, covalent molecules may be solids, liquids, and gases. Ionic compounds are instead only solids at room temperature and pressure. Covalent compounds do not conduct electricity when dissolved in water. Compared to covalently bonded substances, ionic substances have a very high melting and boiling points.
11
