How does the trend of electronegativity across periods and groups influence the polarity of bonds in compounds?

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Electronegativity increases across periods, leading to more polar bonds.

Electronegativity decreases down a group, causing all bonds to be nonpolar.

Electronegativity is irrelevant to bond polarity and only affects atomic size.

Electronegativity increases down a group, leading to less polar bonds.

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Electronegativity rises from left to right across a period and falls from top to bottom down a group. Because bond polarity is determined by the difference in electronegativity between two atoms, a larger difference means a more polar bond, while a small difference means a less polar or nonpolar bond. Thus, atoms on the right side of a period (which are more electronegative) tend to form more polar bonds with less electronegative partners, whereas atoms lower in a group (which are less electronegative) form bonds that are less polar. For example, hydrogen (EN ≈ 2. 20) bonded to fluorine (EN ≈ 3.

Detailed Explanation

Electronegativity is a measure of how strongly an atom pulls shared electrons. Other options are incorrect because People often think that because electronegativity goes down as you go down a group, bonds become nonpolar; Some think electronegativity has no effect on polarity.

Key Concepts

Electronegativity

Bond Polarity

Periodic Trends

Topic

Electronegativity

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hard level question

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