Describe how elements combine chemically?

Question

Describe how elements combine chemically?

Answer 1

The elements combined chemically for me, is that if you mix them together, it will form new element different now from the previous.

Answer 2

Elements and other chemicals combine by bonding to one another.  The main types of chemical bonds, ionic and covalent which are strong bonds, and hydrogen bonds and van der waals forces which are weak bonds.  Elements will bond to each other in order to obtain the most stable electron configuration in their valence (outermost) shell.  In ionic bonds this inivolves the donation/acceptance of electron/s from another element (e.g 2Na + Cl2 = 2NaCl: chlorine has 7 electrons in its valence shell, sodium has 1 so in order for each of them to be most electronically stable, the Na donates its electron to chlorine).  In covalent bonding the neither bonding atom can completely fill their valence shell so the atoms share electrons.  An example of this is molecular hydrogen, H2.  Each hydrogen atom only has 1 valence electron but would prefer to have 2 (to be like helium) so they share their electrons with each other.  With the weak bonds (hydrogen and VD Waals bonds) there isn't electon sharing but rather electrostatic attraction (e.g water, hydrogen has a slightly positive charge associated with it, oxygen a negative charge, the charges attract each other like a magnet).

Answer 3

The process is called a chemical bond.  Basically, there are two types of chemical bond: covalent and ionic.

A covalent bond has two atoms sharing electrons in order to create a more stable electron arrangement for each atom.  This sharing bonds the two atoms together.

An ionic bond involves the transfer of electrons from one atom to another, again to have a more stable arrangement of electrons.  This makes one atoms very negative (the one that gains the electron) and the other very positive (the one that lost the electron).  The attraction of oposite charges bonds the two atoms together.