Can a covalent bond form between a metal atom and a non-metal atom?
Only ionic bonds can form between a metal atom and a non-metal atom because metals tend to lose electrons – creating a positive charge – and non-metals tend to gain electrons – creating a negative charge. The charged ions are then attracted to each other. Consequently, two non-metal atoms cannot exchange electrons because they will both need to gain electrons to form ions. In fact, two non-metal atoms form covalent bonds because of their mutual need for electrons; covalent bonds allow them to share their electrons with each other.
