Draw the Lewis Dot Structure for N2 and a Second Structure Showing the Bonds and the VSEPR Shape. What is the Name of the Shape? How Many Lone Pairs of Electrons Are Present?

To draw the Lewis dot structure for N₂ (nitrogen gas), follow these steps:

1. Nitrogen has 5 valence electrons. Since there are two nitrogen atoms, the total number of valence electrons is 10.
2. Place the two nitrogen atoms next to each other and share three pairs of electrons between them to form a triple bond. This uses up 6 electrons.
3. Each nitrogen atom will have one lone pair of electrons remaining, using up the remaining 4 electrons.

The Lewis dot structure for N₂ looks like this:

:N≡N:

Now, let’s draw a second structure showing the bonds and the VSEPR shape:

1. The triple bond between the two nitrogen atoms consists of one sigma bond and two pi bonds.
2. According to the VSEPR (Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion) theory, the shape of N₂ is linear because there are no lone pairs on the central atom (each nitrogen is considered a central atom in this diatomic molecule).

The name of the shape is linear.

In the Lewis structure of N₂, each nitrogen atom has one lone pair of electrons. Therefore, there are a total of 2 lone pairs of electrons present in the molecule.