I need help with lewis diagram of HCN - which one do I put in the middle?

2 Answers
Feb 23, 2015

H-C---N:
Hydrogen forms a single bond with Carbon and carbon a triple bond with nitrogen, with 1 lone pair on the other side of N.

The least electronegative atom is usually the one in the middle, in this case C. You're welcome

Feb 23, 2015

The Lewis dot diagram for hydrogen cyanide, #"HCN"#, is #"H:C:::N:"# . There is a single covalent bond between the hydrogen and carbon atom, represented by two dots, #:#, each of which represents a shared electron; a triple covalent bond between the carbon and nitrogen atom, represented by three pairs of dots, #:::#, representing three pairs of shared electrons, and a lone pair of electrons on the nitrogen atom, represented by a pair of dots, #:# .