What Are the Key Ideas? Bond formation is accompanied by a lowering of energy
due to the attractions between oppositely charged ions or between nuclei and shared
electron pairs. The electron configurations of individual atoms control how the atoms
combine with one another.
What Do You Need to Know Already? This chapter assumes that you know about
atomic structure and electron configurations (Chapters 1 and 2), the basic features of
energy, and the nature of the Coulomb interaction between charges (Fundamentals,
Section A). It is also helpful to be familiar with the various types of compounds and their
nomenclature (Fundamentals, Sections C and D) and oxidation numbers (Fundamentals,
Section K).