{"id":205225,"date":"2025-03-24T08:44:40","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T08:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=205225"},"modified":"2025-03-24T08:44:43","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T08:44:43","slug":"the-bf3-molecule-is-nonpolar-whereas-the-nf3-molecule-is-polar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/24\/the-bf3-molecule-is-nonpolar-whereas-the-nf3-molecule-is-polar\/","title":{"rendered":"The BF3 molecule is nonpolar, whereas the NF3 molecule is polar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The BF3 molecule is nonpolar, whereas the NF3 molecule is polar. Which of the following staternents accounts for the difference in polarity of the two molecules?<br>A In NF3, each F is joined to N with multiple bonds, whereas in BFg, each F is joined to 8 with single bonds<br>B N-F bonds are polar, whereas B-F bonds are nonpolar.<br>C NF3 is an ionic compound, whereas BF3 is a molecular compound.<br>D Unlike BF3. NF3 has a nonplanar geometry due to an unshared pair of electrons on the Natom<\/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>The correct answer is:<br><strong>D. Unlike BF\u2083, NF\u2083 has a nonplanar geometry due to an unshared pair of electrons on the N atom.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Explanation:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The polarity of a molecule depends on both the polarity of its individual bonds and its overall molecular geometry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>BF\u2083 (Boron Trifluoride) &#8211; Nonpolar:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The BF\u2083 molecule consists of boron (B) at the center, bonded to three fluorine (F) atoms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Boron has only three valence electrons and forms three single bonds with fluorine.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The molecule adopts a <strong>trigonal planar geometry<\/strong> with bond angles of <strong>120\u00b0<\/strong>, ensuring that the dipole moments of the highly electronegative fluorine atoms cancel each other out.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Because of this <strong>symmetry<\/strong>, BF\u2083 has <strong>no net dipole moment<\/strong> and is therefore <strong>nonpolar<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>NF\u2083 (Nitrogen Trifluoride) &#8211; Polar:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The NF\u2083 molecule has nitrogen (N) at the center, bonded to three fluorine (F) atoms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nitrogen has five valence electrons, meaning that after forming three bonds with fluorine, it retains a <strong>lone pair of electrons<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This lone pair <strong>pushes down<\/strong> the bonded fluorine atoms, creating a <strong>trigonal pyramidal geometry<\/strong> similar to NH\u2083 (ammonia).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This geometry results in an <strong>uneven charge distribution<\/strong>, where the lone pair on nitrogen <strong>does not allow the dipole moments to cancel out<\/strong> completely.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As a result, NF\u2083 has a <strong>net dipole moment<\/strong>, making it a <strong>polar molecule<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why the Other Options Are Incorrect:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Option A<\/strong> is incorrect because both NF\u2083 and BF\u2083 contain only single bonds.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Option B<\/strong> is incorrect because <strong>B-F bonds are actually polar<\/strong> due to fluorine&#8217;s high electronegativity. However, in BF\u2083, the dipoles cancel out due to symmetry.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Option C<\/strong> is incorrect because both NF\u2083 and BF\u2083 are <strong>molecular compounds, not ionic compounds<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusion:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The key difference is <strong>molecular geometry<\/strong>. BF\u2083 is <strong>trigonal planar<\/strong> (nonpolar), whereas NF\u2083 is <strong>trigonal pyramidal<\/strong> due to the lone pair on nitrogen, making it <strong>polar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-1240.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-205226\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The BF3 molecule is nonpolar, whereas the NF3 molecule is polar. Which of the following staternents accounts for the difference in polarity of the two molecules?A In NF3, each F is joined to N with multiple bonds, whereas in BFg, each F is joined to 8 with single bondsB N-F bonds are polar, whereas B-F [&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-205225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205225","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=205225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}