What covalent compound is N2S?

1 Answer

N₂S is dinitrogen sulfide. It has highly polar linear molecules.

The structure is like that of N₂O. This makes sense, because S and O are both in Group 16 of the Periodic Table.

The Lewis structure of N₂S is :N≡N-S::: Every atom has an octet, but there are formal charges:

:N≡N⁺-S⁻:::

We could write another structure as ::N⁻=N⁺=S:: Each structure still has an octet, but the N atom now has a negative charge.

We can write a third structure with no formal charges

::N-N(:)=S::

This is not a good structure, because the terminal N atom does not have an octet.

The best structure is the second one for two reasons. Every atom has an octet. Also, N is more electronegative than S, so the preferred location for electrons is on N.

The presence of formal charges means that the molecule will be highly polar.

According to VSEPR theory, this is an AX₂ molecule. It will be linear with an N-N-S bond angle of 180 °.

Covalent compound from images.chemnet.com.