Ba3n2 Lewis Structure,Characteristics:13 Facts You Should Know

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Ba3N2, its lewis structure, shape, bond angle, hybridisation, stability were briefly discussed in this article.

Barium nitride is a compound with chemical formula Ba3N2 having three barium and two nitrogen atoms combined through ionic bond. Its molecular weight is 440 and has various applications.

How to draw Ba3N2 lewis structures ?

Lewis structure of a molecule is mainly drawn to understand how the bond formation takes place when two atoms or more got united. The lewis structure of a compound is drawn by considering only the valence electrons present in the outermost shell and it is represented as dots. So the structures drawn by this concept are called lewis dot structures.

Lewis dot structures can be drawn for both covalently bonded and ionic bonded compounds. Barium nitride is a compound having three barium and two nitrogen atoms. Barium is a second group alkaline earth metal and nitrogen is fifteen group element. There are certain rules or steps are there to reach up to the lewis structure of any compound.

  • Calculate the total number of valence electrons. Here barium has 2 electrons in its outermost shell and nitrogen has five valence electrons. So the total number of valence electrons in barium nitride, Ba3N2 is 2×3+5×2 = 16 electrons.
  • Three barium atoms with two valence electrons and two nitrogen atoms with five valence electrons are present in barium nitride, Ba3N2.
ba3n2 lewis structure
Valence electrons in Ba3N2
  • Each barium atom donates its two electrons to nitrogen atom to form a barium cation, Ba2+. When nitrogen accepts this electrons it get converted to a anion called nitride,N3-.
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Ba2+ and N3- ion formation
  • So a positive barium cation and a negative nitride anion formed will undergo electrostatic force of attraction to form a stable compound called barium nitride.
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Lewis structure of Ba3N2

Ba3N2  resonance

Resonance can be defined as the movement or the delocalistion of electrons present in an atom of any compound. Resonance can only seen in compounds with double bonds and the electrons involved with these bonds are easy to move across the bonds. While drawing the resonance structure the actual properties like the number of electrons present around the atom shouldn’t change.

Even though there is double bond in barium nitride it is not allowed to move across, because if they do so the molecular structure not exist. So there is no resonance structure for barium nitride.

Ba3N2  Shape

Barium nitride is a bent shaped molecule with Ba- N bonds. In which two barium – nitrogen bonds are double bonded while one of the barium is attached to two nitrogen atoms through single bonds.

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Shape of Ba3N2

Ba3N2  Formal charge

Formal charge is a charge assigned to an atom when it is get combined with other atoms to form a stable compound. The formal charge assigned to an atom can be easily found out by the below equation

Formal charge of an atom = ( Valence electrons – No. of lone pairs – No. of bonds formed)

Formal charge of  Barium in Ba3N2 = 2 – 0- 2

                                                        = 0

Formal charge of  Nitrogen  in Ba3N2 = 5 – 2- 3

                                                            = 0

So the formal charge of both the barium and nitrogen in Ba3N2 is 0.

Ba3N2 Bond angle

Bond angle is the angle made between three atoms when they combine together to form a stable compound. Since barium nitride is a molecule with bent shape its bond angle may be 109.40. Since there is two lone pair of electrons are present in the nitrogen atoms there is a probability for a change.

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Angle of Ba3N2

Ba3N2 Octet rule

According to octet rule, when atoms combine together to form compounds they are found to be more stable when their outermost shell are filled with eight electrons. Atoms lose or gain electrons to obey the octet rule. In the case of barium nitride barium loses its two electrons to nitrogen.

Nitrogen atom accepts these two electrons from barium and got satisfied with eight electrons in its valence shell. So nitrogen atom satisfy octet rule.

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Ba3N2 valence electrons

Ba3N2 Lone pair of electrons

Lone pair of electron or non bonding electrons are the electrons present in the valence shell of an atom which doesn’t took participation in bond formation. Since they doesn’t form bonds they can be called as non bonding electrons.

The lone pair of electrons in barium is 0.

The lone pair of electrons in nitrogen is 2.

Ba3N2 valence electrons

The electrons present in the valence shell or the outermost shell of an atom is called as its valence electrons.

Number of valence electrons present in barium is 2 and nitrogen is 5.

So the total number of valence electrons in Ba3N2 is 16.

Ba3N2 Hybridisation

When the atomic orbitals of atoms with slightly different energies intermixes together to form atomic orbitals with same energy and shape that process  is called hybridisation. The new orbitals formed are called hybrid orbitals and their number is equal to that of the orbitals undergo hybridisation.

Hybridisation is a concept that we applied in the case of covalent compounds. Covalent bonds are formed by mutual sharing of electrons between the bonding  atoms. Barium nitride is not formed by this way. Here barium losses its electron while nitrogen accepts that to form bond. A mutual sharing can’t be seen here. So hybridisation can’t be applied for this compound.

Ba3N2 Solubility

Solubility can be defined as the ability of a substance or solute to get dissolved in a solvent to form a solution. The most commonly used solvents in field of chemistry is water, ethanol, acetone, ether, benzene etc. Barium nitride is soluble in water and are insoluble in organic solvents.

Barium nitride is a polar molecule and water is also a polar solvent. Therefore barium nitride easily soluble in water. Barium nitride reacts with water to form a solution of barium hydroxide and evolution of ammonia gas takes place.

  Ba3N2 + 6H2O  → 3Ba(OH)2 + 2NH3

 Is Ba3N2  Ionic or not ?

An ionic bond is formed by the electrostatic force of  attraction between a positive and negative ion. The positive ion is called cation and negative ion is called anion. Barium nitride, Ba3N2 is an ionic compound.

Barium donates its two electrons to nitrogen to form Barium cation, Ba2+ and nitrogen accepts these electrons to form nitride ion, N3-. Then these positive and negatively charged atoms attracts to form their ionic bond.

The electronegativity of barium and nitrogen is 0.89 and 3.04 respectively. Their electronegativity difference is 2.15. When compounds have electronegativity value greater than 1.7 then that compound will be ionic in nature. Here 2.15 is greater than 1.7 so barium nitride can be considered as an ionic compound.

Is Ba3N2 Polar or not ?

A compound is said to be polar in nature when the electronegativity difference of atoms present is more than 0.4. The electronegativity value of barium is 0.89 and nitrogen is 3.04. Their electronegativity difference is 2.15, which is greater than 0.4. So barium nitride, Ba3N2 is polar in its nature.

Is Ba3N2 Acidic or Basic ?

Barium nitride is an ionic compound which shows polar behaviour. An ionic compound is said to be acidic when it has hydrogen ion and basic when it has basic ions like hydroxide(OH–) and oxide(O2-) present in it.

Ionic compounds without the presence of these ions are called salts and they are formed by acid base reactions. Since there is no hydrogen and hydroxide ions present in barium  nitride it is neither acid nor base. So barium nitride can be considered as a salt.

Summary

Barium nitride, Ba3N2 is an ionic compound which is polar in nature. This article briefly explains about its lewis structures, lone pairs, valence electrons and hybridisation. Barium nitride is used as flux in GaN growth medium, precursor of metal nitrides and dopants in optical materials.

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