⚡ Electronegativity Difference Calculator
Enter the Pauling electronegativity values of two bonded atoms to find the difference and estimate the bond’s ionic character.
What does electronegativity difference tell you?
Electronegativity measures how strongly an atom pulls shared electrons toward itself in a bond. The difference in electronegativity between two bonded atoms is a quick way to predict what kind of bond they’ll form.
How this calculator works
The calculator simply subtracts the smaller Pauling electronegativity value from the larger one: ΔEN = |EN(A) − EN(B)|. It also estimates percent ionic character using a common empirical relationship, percent ionic character = 100 × (1 − e^(−0.25×ΔEN²)), which approximates how much the bonding electrons are unevenly shared.
As a general rule of thumb: a difference below about 0.4 suggests a nonpolar covalent bond, a difference between about 0.4 and 1.7 suggests a polar covalent bond, and a difference above about 1.7 suggests an ionic bond. These are approximate guidelines rather than hard cutoffs, and real bonding character exists on a continuum.
This tool is for general chemistry education purposes.