What happens to electrons when a polar covalent bond forms?

Answer 1

They are unequally shared about the species.

Consider the diagram of #CH_4# and look for a perspective dipole moment:

In the C-H bonds, the electron are shared unequally between Carbon and Hydrogen. The dipole points toward Carbon because the C-H bond is polar covalent, and this is because Carbon is more electronegative than Hydrogen.

However in #CH_4#, the dipoles created by the C-H bonds cancel each other out, and as you can observe there is no dipole moment.

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Answer 2

Wyatt Adkins

When a polar covalent bond forms, electrons are shared between atoms, but they are not shared equally. One atom has a higher electronegativity than the other, so it attracts the shared electrons more strongly, causing a partial negative charge on that atom and a partial positive charge on the other atom.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.