Question

PH3, explain why there is a partial positive on hydrogen and partial negative on phosphorus.

Answer 1

Answer:

Phosphorus is more electronegative than hydrogen

Explanation:

Electronegativity is a measure of the tendency of an atom to attract a bonding pair of electrons towards itself thereby making a molecule to be polar. The Pauling scale is the most commonly used to measure electronegativity. Fluorine (the most electronegative element) is assigned a value of 4.0 on the Pauling's scale, and values range down to caesium and francium which are the least electronegative elements.

Electronegativity increases from left to right across the periodic table (across the period) hence, phosphorus is far more electronegative than hydrogen. Being more electronegative than hydrogen, phosphorus attracts the bonding electron pair of the P-H bond closer to itself than hydrogen. Since the electrons of the bond are closer to phosphorus than hydrogen, the phosphorus atom acquires a partial negative charge while the hydrogen atom acquires a partial positive charge.