Hey, chemistry is not that bad IIIII

Chemistry Level 2

Which oxidation number the element nitrogen cannot have?

-4

-\dfrac{1}{3}

+5

-3

1 solution

Vaibhav Prasad
May 14, 2016

Any non-metal can have a maximum oxidation number of $n$ and a minimum oxidation number of $n-8$ , where $n$ is the total number of electrons in the outermost shell.

Thus Nitrogen cannot have $-4$

That's absolutely right. +1

Nihar Mahajan - 5 years, 1 month ago

Nice question. Bonus question:- Can silver ever have oxidation number 2?

Ashish Menon - 5 years, 1 month ago

Yes.. in AgF2

Upamanyu Mukharji - 5 years ago

@Upamanyu Mukharji – Correct! Nice it is very rare that silver has oxidation number other than +1.

Ashish Menon - 5 years ago

Hey, chemistry is not that bad IIIII

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