Led by Linus Pauling
About this course
The third module of the Edexcel GCSE Chemistry course is the largest of the four into which we have split Topic 1. It covers the three principal types of chemical bond — ionic, covalent, and metallic — and the four structural categories that follow from them: giant ionic lattices, simple molecular substances, giant covalent structures (diamond, graphite, fullerenes, graphene), and metals. The student leaves the module able to draw dot-and-cross diagrams for the spec's required ionic and covalent examples, classify any substance by bonding type, and predict its physical properties from its structure.
It is led by Linus Pauling, who in 1939 published The Nature of the Chemical Bond — the work that applied quantum mechanics to chemistry and established the modern bonding-and-structure framework. He won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1954 and the Peace Prize in 1962, the only person to hold two unshared Nobels.
The student leaves the module able to draw dot-and-cross diagrams for ionic compounds in groups 1, 2, 6, 7 and for six small covalent molecules; classify any substance into the four bonding types; account for the property differences between diamond, graphite, fullerenes, graphene, polymers, and metals; and explain the limitations of structural representations.
Led by Linus Pauling
The question
What holds atoms together, and how does the type of bond — ionic, covalent, or metallic — determine the substance's properties? The spec asks the student to draw dot-and-cross diagrams for ionic compounds in groups 1, 2, 6, 7 and for six required small covalent molecules; deduce formulae of ionic compounds; explain the structure and properties of the four bonding categories (ionic, simple molecular, giant covalent, metallic); describe and contrast diamond, graphite, fullerenes, graphene, and polymers; and account for the limitations of structural representations.
Outcome
the student can draw dot-and-cross diagrams for the required ionic and covalent examples, deduce formulae of ionic compounds, classify substances into the four bonding categories and predict their properties, describe and contrast giant covalent structures, account for polymer and metallic structures, and explain the limitations of structural representations. *(Edexcel 1CH0 — Topic 1, spec points 1.21–1.42)*
Sub-units