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11 grade chemistry others

What is the Lewis structure of HCN?

Profile image of Aniket Singh
1 Year agoGrade
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1 Answer

Profile image of Askiitians Tutor Team
1 Year ago

The Lewis structure of HCN (hydrogen cyanide) consists of the following arrangement of atoms and valence electrons:

H
|
C≡N

In this structure:

The "H" represents a hydrogen atom.
The "C" represents a carbon atom.
The triple bond (≡) between the carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) atoms indicates that they share three pairs of electrons, making a total of 6 electrons shared between them.
The single line between the hydrogen (H) and carbon (C) atoms represents a single bond, indicating that they share one pair of electrons.
In total, there are 2 electrons for the bond between H and C, and 6 electrons for the triple bond between C and N, for a total of 8 valence electrons being used in the Lewis structure. Carbon and nitrogen each satisfy the octet rule (having 8 valence electrons) in this structure, while hydrogen has only 2 valence electrons, which is the maximum it can have in a Lewis structure. This Lewis structure represents the correct arrangement of valence electrons in HCN.