Exercise 1 Question 6
What is the covalence of nitrogen in N2O5?
Covalency is defined as the tendency of an atom to form number of covalent bond with other molecule. N2O5 (Dinitrogen pentoxide) is one of the form of the nitrogen atom which belongs to group 15 in the periodic table. Nitrogen combines with oxygen to form a number of oxides having different oxidation states. Nitrogen has tendency to form pπ-pπ multiple bonds, which decides the structure of oxides. N2O5 has following structure:
From the above structure, it is clear that Nitrogen atom is sharing its electrons with oxygen atom. Nitrogen shares it four pair of electrons with oxygen, therefore nitrogen covalency is four (4).
