Solids are generally held together by ionic or strong covalent bonding, and the attractive forces between the atoms, ions, or molecules in solids are very strong. In fact, these forces are so strong that particles in a solid are held in fixed positions and have very little freedom of movement.

A solid has definite volume and shape, a liquid has a definite volume but no definite shape, and a gas has neither a definite volume nor shape.

Characteristics of Solids, Liquids, Gases

• strong intermolecular forces.
• particles vibrate in place.
• low kinetic energy (KE)
• definite shape.
• definite volume.
• incompressible.
• high density (as compared to same substance as a liquid or gas)
• low rate of diffusion (millions of times slower than in liquids)

The traditional classification distinguishes four kinds of bonding:

1. Covalent bonding, which forms network covalent solids (sometimes called simply “covalent solids”)
2. Ionic bonding, which forms ionic solids.
3. Metallic bonding, which forms metallic solids.

All solids are composed of atoms that are bonded together. The bonding may be of different nature depending upon the constituent atoms and the prevalent energy states, but all the bonds are meant to provide a certain level of attractive force to keep the atoms together.

Atoms stick together to form molecules by sharing electrons. The degree of sharing defines the type of bond. Molecules interact with one another via intermolecular interactions. Intermolecular insteractions are attractive forces that occur due simply to the outermost electrons of the molecules.

intermolecular forces