Question

What is the formula unit of sodium nitride?

Answer 1

`Na_3N`

Explanation:

The elements in this ionic compound are sodium and nitrogen (the -ide ending indicates that the anion will be monoatomic (a single element)).

Na has a charge of +1, and N generally has a charge of -3.

To balance out their charges so that the net charge of the ion is 0, you will need 3 Na atoms per atom N. This is because each Na atom has a charge of +1, so the charge of all three Na atoms together is +3. This will cancel out with the -3 charge of a single N atom.

So the formula unit for sodium nitride is `Na_3N`