N2O LEWISH STRUCTURE

[Dang Lam]

Can someone show me how to draw the lewis structure for N2O? How do you figure out which structure has the lowest energy?

[Sara Sasaki 1K]

There are 3 different ways to draw the Lewis structure for N2O:
1. N with 3 lone pr, 1 bonding pr to N with 3 bonding pr to O with 1 lone pr
2. N with 2 lone pr, 2 bonding pr to N with 2 bonding pr to O with 2 lone pr
3. N with 1 lone pr, 3 bonding pr to N with 1 bonding pr to O with 3 lone pr

The third structure is the dominant resonance structure since it has the lowest energy. This video should explain more thoroughly https://youtu.be/ZlHIQhJlWNs

Hope this helps and good luck on the midterm later!

[Hammad Khan 2B]

So first find the element with lowest ionization energy which is N and then find the shape of the lewis structure which would be linear since you have 3 elements with one in the middle. Second, find the structure which makes each element have an octet. Lastly, find the formal charge of each element and try to get a formal charge of 0 for each element if possible or +1,-1 which would be the most stable.

[Remi Lathrop 1G]

The key here is actually electronegativity, because even after considering formal charge you have two lewis structures each with a -1, +1 & 0 formal charge just on different elements. In this case, the element that most wants to have the -1 formal charge is the element with the highest electronegativity, which in this example is Oxygen.
Thus, you know that the most stable resonance structure is the one where O has the -1 charge because O is more electronegative than N, I think this was structure 3 as described in a previous comment.