Question

What is the Lewis structure for nitrogen?

Answer 1

For `"dinitrogen gas"`, `:N-=N:`.

Explanation:

For atomic nitrogen, `Z=7`. There are thus 7 electrons to distribute per nitrogen atom, 2 of which are inner core, and these may be ignored. So we distribute 5 electrons around EACH nitrogen centre and come up with a triple bond.

This Lewis structure reflects the shortness and strength of the bond in the dinitrogen molecule, which are experimental findings.

This video shows how to use the periodic table to draw Lewis structures and figure out how many valence electrons an atom has.

Video from: Noel Pauller

Hope this helps!