Question

In the correct lewis structure for the nitrate ion, no3 –­, nitrogen has how many covalent bonds?

Answer 1

Answer :  The correct Lewis-dot structure of nitrate ion is shown below and the nitrogen has 4 covalent bonds.

Explanation :

Lewis-dot structure : It shows the bonding between the atoms of a molecule and it also shows the unpaired electrons present in the molecule.  The number of valance electrons are shown by 'dot'.

The given molecule is, nitrate ion

As we know that nitrogen has '5' valence electrons and oxygen has '6' valence electron.

Therefore, the total number of valence electrons in $NO_3^-$ = 5 + 3(6) + 1 = 24 electrons

According to Lewis-dot structure, there are 8 number of bonding electrons and 16 number of non-bonding electrons.

The correct Lewis-dot structure of nitrate ion is shown below.