Skip to main content

Polar Covalent Bonds

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

A polar covalent bond shares electrons unevenly between two atoms, because one pulls them closer than the other.

Show

In a water molecule, oxygen pulls the shared electrons closer than hydrogen does, leaving oxygen slightly negative and each hydrogen slightly positive.

Watch for

A polar bond still shares electrons — unevenness is a matter of degree, not a switch to an ionic bond.