Question

Which combinamtion of atoms is most likely to produce a compound with covalent bonds?

a. K and Br

b. Al and S

c. S and Cl

d. Sn and F

e. Li and I

Answer 1

You don't have to distinguish between polar and nonpolar covalent in this question. You have five pairings of elements and only one of them produces a covalent bond.

What you need to do is look at the electronegativity differences and, from that difference, make a conclusion.

http://chemteam.info/Bonding/Electroneg-...

Another way to look at is is that practically all (if not all) metal/nonmetal bonds are ionic and that all nonmetal/nonmetal bonds are covalent.

Only one example is present of a nonmetal/nonmetal bond and it is answer choice c. The bond between S and Cl is a covalent bond, the other four choices all produce ionic bonds.