Polar covalent bond. Although there are no hard and fast rules, the general rule is that a difference in electronegativity less than 0.4 indicates the bond is nonpolar; when the difference is greater than 0.4, the bond is considered polar. When the difference in electronegativities is large enough (generally greater than about 1.8), the resulting compound is considered ionic rather than covalent. An electronegativity difference of zero, of course, indicates a nonpolar covalent bond.
The polarity of a covalent bond can be judged by determining the difference in the electronegativities between the two atoms making the bond. The greater the difference in electronegativities, the greater the imbalance of electron sharing in the bond.
