Is CF a polar or non polar bond?

Answer 1

C-F is a polar covalent bond. Remember your different types of bonds:

ionic - typically a metal + a non-metal where an electron is "stolen" to satisfy the octet rule (ex. NaCl, KBr, etc). the metal ends up as a positive ion (cation), and the non-metal ends up as a negative ion (anion).

covalent - typically forms between non-metals. electrons are "shared" to satisfy the octet rule (ex. H2O, carbon-carbon bonds, etc).

there are others (ex. metallic bonds) which i won't get into here.

covalent bonds have varying degrees of polarity. only a bond between two identical atoms (ex. O2, H2, etc) can be said to be truly non-polar. pretty much all other covalent bonds are at least weakly polar. the greater the discrepancy in electronegativity between the two atoms, the greater the polarity. for example, carbon and hydrogen have very similar electronegativities, so most C-H bonds are only weakly polar.

since fluorine is the most electronegative element there is, it forms a very polar covalent bond with carbon, which is much less electronegative.

as a side note, this fact makes trifluoroacetic acid (CF3-COOH) more than 30,000 times more acidic than acetic acid (CH3-COOH).