Question

What is the Lewis structure of N2O?

Answer 1

Well, we got 16 valence electrons....

Explanation:

16 valence electrons:

`2xx5_"nitrogen"+1xx6_"oxygen"="8 electron pairs"`

...to distribute over 3 centres. And you must simply KNOW here that the oxygen is terminal. And given the example, there will be formal charge separation.

`N-=stackrel(+)N-O^(-)` versus `""^(-)N=stackrel(+)N=O`

This is half the story inasmuch as we consider the data: i.e. the bond-length of dinitrogen, dioxygen, and nitrous oxide...

`N-=N` `:"bond length"=1.10xx10^-10*m`

`O=O` `:"bond length"=1.21xx10^-10*m`

`N-=stackrel+N-O^(-)` `:"N-O bond length"=1.19xx10^-10*m`

`:"N-N bond length"=1.13xx10^-10*m`