1 Ammonia, NH3, reacts with incredibly strong bases to produce the amide ion, NH2 -. Ammonia can also react with acids to produce the ammonium ion, NH4 +. (a) Which species (amide ion, ammonia, or ammonium ion) has the largest H ¬ N ¬ H bond angle? (b) Which species has the smallest H¬N¬H bond angle?

a) ammonium ion

b) amide ion

Explanation:

The order of decreasing bond angles of the three nitrogen species; ammonium ion, ammonia and amide ion is NH4+ >NH3> NH2-. Next we need to rationalize this order of decreasing bond angles from the valence shell electron pair repulsion (VSEPR) theory perspective.

First we must realize that all three nitrogen species contain a central sp3 hybridized carbon atom. This means that a tetrahedral geometry is ideally expected. Recall that the presence of lone pairs distorts molecular structures from the expected geometry based on VSEPR theory.

The amide ion contains two lone pairs of electrons. Remember that the presence of lone pairs causes greater repulsion than bond pairs on the outermost shell of the central atom. Hence, the amide ion has the least H-N-H bond angle of about 105°.

The ammonia molecule contains one lone pair, the repulsion caused by one lone pair is definitely bless than that caused by two lone pairs of electrons hence the bond angle of the H-N-H bond in ammonia is 107°.

The ammonium ion contains four bond pairs and no lone pair of electrons on the outermost nitrogen atom. Hence we expect a perfect tetrahedron with bond angle of 109°.

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