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Atoms bond for one reason: the noble gases are stable and everyone else wants their electron arrangement. Helium is content with 2 electrons in its only shell, and every other noble gas with 8 in its outermost shell. So an atom will give away, take, or share electrons until its outer shell looks like a noble gas. That is the octet rule, with a duplet rule for the tiny atoms — hydrogen, lithium, beryllium — which aim for 2 instead of 8.
How the atom reaches that arrangement decides the type of bond, and the type of bond decides every property the paper then asks about — melting point, solubility, whether it conducts, whether it is hard or soft.
That chain is the whole chapter: electron arrangement → bond type → property. Learn it forwards and you can answer questions backwards, deducing the bond from a list of properties, which is exactly how the harder items are set.
1. A bond formed by the complete transfer of one or more electrons from a metal atom to a non-metal atom is called:
2. Solid sodium chloride does not conduct electricity, but molten sodium chloride does. The reason is that in the solid:
3. Which of the following species contains a coordinate (dative) bond?
4. Graphite conducts electricity while diamond does not, even though both are pure carbon. This is because in graphite:
5. Which set of properties belongs to ionic compounds?
6. The shape of a methane (CH₄) molecule is:
7. Water boils at 100 °C and ice floats on water. Both facts are explained mainly by:
8. Which pair of atoms is most likely to form a covalent bond?