High School

What is the expected charge on a tetrahedral molecular ion made of one nitrogen atom and four hydrogen atoms?

Answer :

The tetrahedral molecular ion NH₄⁺ has an expected charge of +1. This ion is formed when one nitrogen atom with five valence electrons bonds with four hydrogen atoms. The Lewis structure includes brackets and a +1 showing the overall charge of the ion.

The expected charge on a tetrahedral molecular ion made of one nitrogen atom and four hydrogen atoms, commonly known as the ammonium ion (NH₄⁺), is +1. A neutral nitrogen atom has five valence electrons. When bonding with four hydrogen atoms, each providing one electron, a total of nine electrons are available. However, since there are eight bonding electrons in the ammonium ion (two per bond in four bonds), we must subtract one electron to account for the ion's charge, leaving us with eight electrons in the structural formula of the ion. Thus, we represent the ammonium ion with a large set of brackets and a superscripted +1 charge outside the brackets, which signifies that the ion overall has a positive charge.

To understand the electron arrangement, let's consider the nitrogen at the center. In the NH₄⁺ ion, the central nitrogen is surrounded by four electron domains (the four N-H bonds), which all point to the corners of a tetrahedron to minimize repulsions. Since there are no lone pairs on the nitrogen atom in the ammonium ion, the tetrahedral structure results in equivalent bond angles of approximately 109.5° between the hydrogen atoms.

Ions can be made by single element or covalently bonded group of elements. The covalently bonded group of elements is called polyatomic ions or polyatomic atoms. Therefore the charge on the molecule is +1.

What is Ions?

Any species that contain charge whether it is positive charge or negative charge is called ions. The example of polyatomic ions are sulfate, phosphate, nitrate etc.

Cation is the species that loose electron and attain positive charge while anion is a species which gain electron and attains negative charge so when anion and cation combine in fixed ration the the overall charge of the molecule is zero that is molecule is neutral, the charge over cation and anion is also called oxidation state.

When one nitrogen atom is connected to four hydrogen atoms, then the molecule that is formed is NH₄⁺. The shape and geometry of this molecule is tetrahedral and the charge on the molecule is +1.

Therefore the charge on the molecule is +1.

To learn more about ions, here:

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