Electronegativity, symbol χ, is a chemical property that describes the tendency of an atom to

attract a shared pair of electrons(or electron density) towards itself.[1] An atom's electronegativity
is affected by both its atomic number and the distance at which its valence electrons reside from
the charged nucleus. The higher the associated electronegativity number, the more an element or
compound attracts electrons towards it.
The term "electronegativity" was introduced by Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1811,[2] though the
concept was known even before that and was studied by many chemists
including Avogadro.[2] In spite of its long history, an accurate scale of electronegativity was not
developed until 1932, when Linus Pauling proposed an electronegativity scale, which depends on
bond energies, as a development of valence bond theory.[3] It has been shown to correlate with a
number of other chemical properties. Electronegativity cannot be directly measured and must be
calculated from other atomic or molecular properties. Several methods of calculation have been
proposed, and although there may be small differences in the numerical values of the
electronegativity, all methods show the same periodic trends between elements.

A molecule or compound is made when two or more atoms form a chemical bond, linking them
together. The two types of bonds are ionic bonds and covalent bonds. The distinction between
them has to do with how equally the atoms participating in the bond share their electrons.

Ionic Bonds

In an ionic bond, one atom essentially donate an electron to stabilize the other atom. In other
words, the electron spends most of its time close to the bonded atom.

Atoms that participate in an ionic bond have different electronegativity values from each other.
A polar bond is formed by the attraction between oppositely-charged ions. For example, sodium
and chloride form an ionic bond, to make NaCl, or table salt. You can predict an ionic bond will
form when two atoms have different electronegativity values and detect an ionic compound by
its properties, including a tendency to dissociate into ions in water.

Covalent Bonds

In a covalent bond, the atoms are bound by shared electrons. In a true covalent bond, the
electronegativity values are the same (e.g., H2, O3), although in practice the electronegativity
values just need to be close. If the electron is shared equally between the atoms forming
a covalent bond, then the bond is said to be nonpolar. Usually, an electron is more attracted to
one atom than to another, forming a polar covalent bond. For example, the atoms in water, H2O,
are held together by polar covalent bonds.

You can predict a covalent bond will form between two nonmetallic atoms. Also, covalent
compounds may dissolve in water, but don't dissociate into ions.
Lone pair
Lone pairs (shown as pairs of dots) in the Lewis structure of hydroxide
In chemistry, a lone pair refers to a pair of valence electrons that are not shared with another
atom[1] and is sometimes called a non-bonding pair. Lone pairs are found in the
outermost electron shell of atoms. They can be identified by using a Lewis structure. Electron
pairs are therefore considered lone pairs if two electrons are paired but are not used in chemical
bonding. Thus, the number of lone pair electrons plus the number of bonding electrons equals the
total number of valence electrons around an atom.
Lone pair is a concept used in valence shell electron pair repulsion theory (VSEPR theory) which
explains the shapes of molecules. They are also referred to in the chemistry of Lewis acids and
bases. However, not all non-bonding pairs of electrons are considered by chemists to be lone
pairs. Examples are the transition metals where the non-bonding pairs do not influence molecular
geometry and are said to be stereochemically inactive.
Lone pairs in ammonia (A), water (B) and hydrogen chloride (C)

A single lone pair can be found with atoms in the nitrogen group such as nitrogen
in ammonia, two lone pairs can be found with atoms in the chalcogen group such as oxygen in
water and the halogens can carry three lone pairs such as in hydrogen chloride.
In VSEPR theory the electron pairs on the oxygen atom in water form the vertices of a
tetrahedron with the lone pairs on two of the four vertices. The H–O–H bond angle is with
104.5°, less than the 109° predicted for a tetrahedral angle, and this can be explained by a
repulsive interaction between the lone pairs.
Lewis structures, also known as Lewis dot diagrams, Lewis dot formulas, Lewis dot
structures, electron dot structures, or Lewis electron dot structures (LEDS), are diagrams
that show the bonding between atoms of a molecule and the lone pairs of electrons that may exist
in the molecule.[1][2][3] A Lewis structure can be drawn for any covalentlybonded molecule, as
well as coordination compounds. The Lewis structure was named after Gilbert N. Lewis, who
introduced it in his 1916 article The Atom and the Molecule.[4]Lewis structures extend the
concept of the electron dot diagram by adding lines between atoms to represent shared pairs in
a chemical bond.
Lewis structures show each atom and its position in the structure of the molecule using its
chemical symbol. Lines are drawn between atoms that are bonded to one another (pairs of dots
can be used instead of lines). Excess electrons that form lone pairs are represented as pairs of
dots, and are placed next to the atoms.
Although main group elements of the second period and beyond usually react by gaining, losing,
or sharing electrons until they have achieved a valence shell electron configuration with a
full octet of (8) electrons, other elements obey different rules. Hydrogen (H) can only form
bonds which share just two electrons, while transition metals often conform to a duodectet
(12)[5] rule (e.g., compounds such as the permanganate ion).