Question
Question: What is the hybridization of \( N{{H}_{3}} \) ?...
What is the hybridization of NH3 ?
Solution
Hint : We know that the NH3 is known as Ammonia. It has Nitrogen as the atom with three Hydrogens around it attached with a sigma bond and a lone pair on Nitrogen. If the three hydrogen atoms would bond with nitrogen using the available p-orbitals, the bond angles would be 900.
Complete Step By Step Answer:
The atom in Ammonia, i.e. Nitrogen is sp3 hybridized. It is a gas at normal conditions and is known as Azane. The molecular weight of Ammonia is 17 g/mol. It is a colourless alkaline gas. Starting with the Lewis dot structure of Ammonia, Nitrogen has 5 valence electrons and each hydrogen has one valence electron.
Ammonia has pyramidal or distorted tetrahedral structure due to the repulsive lone pair – bond pair interaction. So, the total valence electrons are eight. Hydrogen always goes on the outside, so Nitrogen is the atom. After the three valence electrons of Nitrogen have bonded with three Hydrogens, we still have two valence electrons left, which make up one lone pair of Nitrogen
H−N¨(H)−H
To understand the hybridization of Nitrogen in ammonia, we need to look into the configuration; 1s22s22p3 . During hybridization, one s orbital and three p orbitals of nitrogen hybridize to form four hybrid orbitals having equal energy levels, thus making its hybridization sp3. Half three sp3 orbitals of nitrogen form a bond with three hydrogens. The fourth fully filled hybridized orbital holds the lone pair of nitrogen.
Note :
Note that a student might not consider the lone pair of nitrogen in the hybridization of the central atom of Ammonia. The answer in that case would come out to be sp2. Also, the bond angle in ammonia is less than standard 109073′ due to the same reason. The bond angle is 1070.