Question

What do the single electrons in nitrogen do for a triple bond?​

Answer 1

Nitrogen could form 3 bonds based on octet rule, because it has 5 valence electrons. That means it needs 3 bonds.

Explanation:

• A nitrogen atom can fill its octet by sharing three electrons with another nitrogen atom, forming three covalent bonds, a so-called triple bond.
• A triple bond isn't quite three times as strong as a single bond, but it's a very strong bond.
• Every covalent bond is a sharing of two electrons between two atoms. A double bond is 4 electrons being shared (2x2). Therefore a triple bond is 6 electrons being shared (2x3)
• Triple bonds are stronger than double bonds due to the the presence of two pi bonds rather than one.
• Each carbon has two sp hybrid orbitals, and one of them overlaps with its corresponding one from the other carbon atom to form an sp-sp sigma bond.
• A single lone pair can be found with atoms in the nitrogen such as nitrogen in ammonia , two lone pairs can be found with atoms in the chalogen group such as oxygen in water and the halogen can carry three lone pairs such as in hydrogen chloride. Nitrogen has 2 lone pairs.