What is meant by electronegativity?
Electronegativity is the ability of an atom to attract the shared electron pair towards itself in a covalent bond.
The electronegativity increases from left to right in a period.
The electronegativity decreases down the group.
Factors affecting Electronegativity:
The key factors that influence electronegativity are as follow:
1. Atomic size
2. Nuclear charge
3. Shielding effect
4. Hybridization
5. Multiplicity of a bond
Atomic size :
The larger the atomic size of the element in the periodic table refers to the bigger the atomic size.
The bigger atomic size is due to the increase in shell number, the electrons being far away from the nucleus will experience a lesser nuclear force of attraction.
Therefore, it will result in lesser electronegativity values.

Nuclear charge :
Effective nuclear charge (Z) is due to the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom.
The greater nuclear charge will result in a greater electronegativity value.
This happens because the nucleus attracts the electrons more towards itself.

Shielding effect :
The shielding effect is responsible for the decrease in the nuclear force of attraction for the valence shell electrons.
A greater shielding effect will result in a lesser electronegativity value.
Hybridization :
Greater the s-character of the hybrid orbital, the greater the electronegativity value.
In sp3 hybridization, we have 25% s-character
In sp2 hybridization ,we have 33.3% s-character
In sp hybridization, we have 50% s-character
so the increasing order of electronegativity values:
sp3 < sp2 < sp

Multiplicity of a bond :
In the case of single, double and triple covalent bonds, the electronegativity value of :
single bond < double bond < triple bond
so with the increase in bond number, the bond length decrease which will result in a greater electronegativity value.
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Frequently Asked Questions -FAQ
What is the definition of electronegativity for kids?
Electronegativity is a measure of an atom or molecule’s ability to pull a pair of electrons toward it in a covalent bond.
Why is electronegativity important?
Elemental bonding is not feasible without electronegativity. If an atom has a high electronegativity, it is more likely to attract electrons. Atoms combine with one another to produce molecular compounds. Electronegativity is the key factor in establishing the nature of chemical bonding.
What causes electronegativity?
In an atom, the positively charged protons in the nucleus are drawn to the negatively charged electrons. Increases in electronegativity or attraction are seen when the number of protons in a nucleus rises. Therefore, in a given row of the periodic table, electronegativity rises from left to right.
What’s an example of electronegativity?
In comparison to sodium’s 0.93 eV, chlorine’s electronegativity is 3.16 eV. This means that there is a 2.23 eV difference between chlorine and sodium in terms of electronegativity.
What causes a polar bond?
One type of covalent bond is the polar bond. Whenever there is a large disparity in the electronegativity of two or more atoms (>0.4), we refer to the resulting bond as polar. Polar bonds have unequal distribution of negative charge because the electrons they share are not shared equally. A dipole moment is generated.
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