2.7 Lewis structure for N5 +

[Ziyan Wang 3J]

How to draw the Lewis structure for N5+? (N is connected in a chain)?

[Rohit Ghosh 4F]

N5+ is shaped sort of like a V. The N in the middle has single bond attachments to two other N's and those each have a triple bond connection to another N.

[Camellia Liu 1J]

In a Lewis structure, I believe that you can show it as connected in a chain.

To do the problem, I started by counting the electrons of N5+ and got 24e-. Then I placed them in a chain-formation and started rearranging the electrons and bonds to get the most optimal formal charge for each nitrogen atom. For me it basically came down to a process of seeing which arrangement of triple, double, and single bonds could provide the most stable structure.

Here's some example structures (sorry about the multiples, can't figure out how to take them out):

[Vicki Liu 2L]

The way I approached this problem was by first drawing 5 nitrogen atoms connected in a chain with single bonds. I then followed the octet rule and drew in electrons, noticing that 32 electrons would be needed if only single bonds were present. Comparing this to the 24 total valence electrons that N5+ has, I came to the conclusion that 8 electrons must be shared to account for the shortage. So, 4 more bonds must be drawn. From there, I tested out various combinations and tried to minimize the formal charges present on each N atom.