American Chemical Society (ACS) Chemistry Test 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

A nonpolar bond is characterized by a very small difference in electronegativity between the two atoms involved in the bond. When the electronegativity difference is less than or equal to 0.5, the electrons are shared relatively equally, leading to a nonpolar covalent bond. In such bonds, the electron density is symmetrically distributed between the two atoms, resulting in no significant charge separation.

In contrast, larger electronegativity differences indicate increasingly polar or ionic characteristics in the bonding. Differences greater than 0.5 up to 1.7 typically lead to polar covalent bonds, where one atom attracts the shared electron density more strongly than the other. When the difference exceeds 1.7, the bond is often considered ionic, where the electron transfer is substantial enough to create ions. Therefore, recognizing the cutoff for nonpolar bonds is critical in understanding the nature of molecular interactions, with the threshold being a difference of less than or equal to 0.5.