2  Interatomic Bonding

NoteLearning Objectives

• Relate position in the periodic table to the dominant bonding mechanism in a solid.
• Distinguish covalent, ionic, metallic, hydrogen, and van der Waals bonding by their microscopic origin and characteristic energy scales.
• Explain how the shape of an interatomic potential determines equilibrium spacing and local stiffness.
• Connect bond stiffness and atomic mass to the characteristic vibrational frequency scale and to the qualitative scale of the Debye temperature.
• Compare, at a materials level, why ceramics, metals, and molecular crystals differ in their thermal behavior.