{"id":190346,"date":"2025-02-12T07:40:19","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T07:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=190346"},"modified":"2025-02-12T07:40:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T07:40:22","slug":"incomplete-lewis-structures-for-the-nitrous-acid-molecule-hno2-and-the-nitrite-ion-no2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/12\/incomplete-lewis-structures-for-the-nitrous-acid-molecule-hno2-and-the-nitrite-ion-no2\/","title":{"rendered":"Incomplete Lewis structures for the nitrous acid molecule, HNO2, and the nitrite ion, NO2-"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Incomplete Lewis structures for the nitrous acid molecule, HNO2, and the nitrite ion, NO2-, are shown below. (a) Complete each Lewis structure by adding electron pairs as needed. (b) Is the formal charge on N the same or different in these two species? (c) Would either HNO2 or NO2 &#8211; be expected to exhibit resonance? (d) Would you expect the N = O bond in HNO2 to be longer, shorter, or the same length as the N \u2212 O bonds in NO2 _? Explain<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-6-color\"><strong>The Correct Answer and Explanation is :<\/strong><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To answer your questions step by step:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>(a) Completing the Lewis structures:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>HNO2 (Nitrous acid):<\/strong> Nitrous acid consists of a nitrogen atom, an oxygen atom, a hydroxyl group (-OH), and a second oxygen atom double-bonded to nitrogen. The correct Lewis structure will have:<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nitrogen at the center.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One oxygen atom double-bonded to nitrogen.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A second oxygen atom single-bonded to nitrogen and also bonded to a hydrogen atom (the hydroxyl group).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One lone pair of electrons on nitrogen.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lone pairs on oxygen atoms to complete their octets.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>NO2- (Nitrite ion):<\/strong> The nitrite ion has two resonance structures. The Lewis structure will have:<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nitrogen at the center, bonded to two oxygen atoms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One oxygen atom single-bonded to nitrogen, carrying a negative charge.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The other oxygen atom double-bonded to nitrogen.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The negative charge resides on the singly bonded oxygen.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lone pairs on each oxygen to complete their octets.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>(b) Formal charge on nitrogen:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In <strong>HNO2<\/strong>, the formal charge on nitrogen is <strong>0<\/strong> (since nitrogen has 5 valence electrons, shares 3 electrons through bonds, and has 1 lone pair).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In <strong>NO2-<\/strong>, the formal charge on nitrogen is also <strong>0<\/strong>. In this case, nitrogen shares 4 electrons in bonds and has no lone pairs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, the formal charge on nitrogen in both species is <strong>the same<\/strong> (zero).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>(c) Resonance:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Both <strong>HNO2<\/strong> and <strong>NO2-<\/strong> exhibit resonance. The nitrite ion (NO2-) has two resonance structures where the double bond can shift between the two oxygen atoms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>HNO2<\/strong> also exhibits resonance between the oxygen atoms double-bonded to nitrogen, where the structure can shift, with one of the oxygen atoms having a partial negative charge and the other having a partial positive charge.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>(d) N=O bond length comparison:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>N=O bond in HNO2<\/strong> would be <strong>shorter<\/strong> than the N\u2212O bonds in <strong>NO2-<\/strong>. In HNO2, the N=O bond is a double bond, which is shorter and stronger than the single N\u2212O bond. In NO2-, there is resonance between the two O atoms, leading to bond lengths between a pure single bond and a pure double bond, making these bonds slightly longer than in HNO2.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I will now generate the image for the Lewis structures of HNO2 and NO2-.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are the completed Lewis structures for <strong>HNO2<\/strong> (nitrous acid) and <strong>NO2-<\/strong> (nitrite ion). The diagram shows the bonding and lone pairs for each species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Feel free to ask if you need further clarification or have more questions!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-365.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-190347\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Incomplete Lewis structures for the nitrous acid molecule, HNO2, and the nitrite ion, NO2-, are shown below. (a) Complete each Lewis structure by adding electron pairs as needed. (b) Is the formal charge on N the same or different in these two species? (c) Would either HNO2 or NO2 &#8211; be expected to exhibit resonance? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}