What type of elements make up a covalent bond?

1 Answer
Nathan L.
Jul 2, 2017

Nonmetals (most all of the time)

Explanation:

A "covalent bond" is a bond between two atoms in which the electronegativity difference is not large enough so that the electrons appear to transfer completely to one atom (which is then considered an "ionic" bond).

The nonmetals (right side of the metalloids and hydrogen) are those that can form covalent bonds, because their outer shells are close enough to being full that they readily join with other nonmetals so that the shared electron pairs are sufficient to "fill" their valence shell.

Related questions
See all questions in Covalent Bonding
Impact of this question
39525 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License