Chemistry Mnemonics

A hydrogen bond occurs when an electron poor hydrogen is attracted to an electron rich atom. It's not a full bond! To have an electron poor hydrogen, it must be bonded to an electronegative element. It will hydrogen bond to another electronegative element. The three elements electronegative enough for hydrogen bonds are fluorine, oxygen, and nitrogen. Remember: HYDROGEN IS FON (fun)!

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A covalent bond happens when atoms share electrons, but sometimes one element gets to have the electrons just a little more than the other. That's because that element is more electronegative. Hydrogen isn't very electronegative. If it is bonded to an electronegative atom, it will hydrogen bond because it has a greedy neighbor.

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I get it! The first letter of fluorine, oxygen, and nitrogen spells "fon," which sounds like "fun." If I remember "hydrogen is fon," I'll know which atoms hydrogen bonding requires!

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Hydrogen bonding explains how the two strands of DNA stick together. Look at the structure of DNA! If I forget my mnemonic, I can also remember that fluorine, oxygen, and nitrogen are all on the upper-right side of the periodic table. Can you give an example of hydrogen bonding?

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