Question

Give a reason for the following:

Dinitrogen is chemically inert.

Answer 1

Dinitrogen is chemically inert:-

1. Nitrogen has 5 five electrons present in its outermost shell.
2. Thus nitrogen is trivalent for most of its compounds.
3. In dinitrogen$\left({\mathrm{N}}_2\right)$ molecules, there is a presence of a triple bond between the nitrogen atoms $$(N\equiv N)$$.
4. Due to the presence of the $$p-p$$ overlapping of orbitals, the energy which is required to break this triple bond is very high.
5. Due to this reason, dinitrogen generally does not react at normal temperature, hence it's chemically inert.

Therefore, due to the presence of triple between the nitrogen atoms in dinitrogen$\left({\mathrm{N}}_2\right)$, it is chemically inert.