Electronegativity: Definition
- Electronegativity is the ability of an atom to attract a pair of electrons towards itself in a covalent bond
- This phenomenon arises from the positive nucleus’s ability to attract the negatively charged electrons, in the outer shells, towards itself
- The Pauling scale is used to assign a value of electronegativity for each atom
First three rows of the periodic table showing electronegativity values
- Fluorine is the most electronegative atom on the Periodic Table, with a value of 4.0 on the Pauling Scale
- It is best at attracting electron density towards itself when covalently bonded to another atom
Electron distribution in the C-F bond of fluoromethane