Question

What is meant by heterolytic cleavage of a covalent bond?

Answer 1

The bond breaks in heterolytic cleavage, or heterolysis, in such a way that one of the fragments retains the originally shared pair of electrons. As a result, one fragment gains an electron while the other loses an electron because it has both bonding electrons.

Complete answer:
Heterolytic Cleavage occurs when a covalent bond between two atoms A and B breaks in such a way that both of the covalent bond's electrons ( i.e., shared pair ) are taken away by one of the bonded atoms.
Covalent bonds are formed or deconstructed in the majority of organic molecule reactions, depending on the situation. The cleavage of a covalent bond can take place in a number of different ways. To begin, it is possible that only one of the two bonding electrons will be assigned to each of the two combined atoms. As a result, two ions are formed as a result. Heterolysis, also known as heterolytic cleavage, is the term used to describe this type of bond breaking. On the other hand, it is possible that the two bonding electrons are equally distributed among the combined atoms. This results in the formation of so-called radicals. Radicals are atoms or molecules that contain at least one unpaired electron - that is, they have at least one single-occupied atom or molecular orbital - and that have at least one unpaired electron in their structure. This type of bond breakage is referred to as homolysis, or homolytic cleavage.

Note:
The homolytic cleavage of a bond necessitates the use of energy. Heat or radiation may be used in this case. The amount of energy required in a homolytic cleavage is equal to the amount of energy released during the bond formation process. This is referred to as dissociation energy.