
His paper on electronegativity can be read here – Linus Pauling is regarded as one of the two great scientists of all times! He is the only person to be awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes!! He was an American chemist, biochemist who worked on varied subjects like developing electronegativity scales for elements, studying DNA structures, developing dietary supplements etc Many attempts were made to quantitatively calculate electronegativity but the most accurate method, which is widely used today, was given by Linus Pauling in 1932. Thus, there is a partial negative charge ( 𝛅-) on F-atom and a partial positive charge ( 𝛅+) on H-atom.Įlectronegativity is more of an concept than a property and so it does not have units. Thus, in a H-F bond, the fluorine atom pulls the electron density towards itself, introducing polarity in the bond.The adjacent figure shows, how the electron cloud is more towards fluorine atom than hydrogen. Similarly, in a bond, a electronegative element manages to pull the electron density shared between two atoms, more towards itself.Į.g. However, when one player is stronger, he manages to pull the string more towards himself. In tug of war, if both players have equal strength, the pull from both sides is equal. This tendency can be explained with a tug of war analogy. Let us discuss all about this new property, its trends and its use in the study of chemistry.Įlectronegativity(EN) is a concept , which describes an atom’s tendency to attract electrons, that it shares with other atoms , towards itself. We introduce ourselves to a new concept in this post, which is quiet pertinent to the study of chemical bonds and reactions – Electronegativity.
