why is n2 less reactive room temperature

Nitrogen exists as gas (N2) in nature. Nitrogen gas is very unreactive due to the presence of strong triple bonds and has a complete octet for both atoms. N2 is commonly used in food packaging (the gas in potato chips) because of this property.Phosphorus, on the other hand, exists as solid (P4) in nature. P4 has bonds with unstable angle strains compared to that of N2. As a proof of this reactivity, P4 burns quickly.

Molecular Nitrogen i.e dinitrogen is inert for the followings reason 1)It forms a triple bond whose bond dissociation energy is very high.2)The electrons shared by both nitrogen is equally distributed,so it can not attain a polar form.3)if we see The M.O. of N2,then we observed that The homo and the Lumo gap is very high,and it`s homo is sigma.So it does not act as a polar ligand and it can not behave as pi acidic character. But if we can break the bond then the fascinating nitrogen is extremely reactive.

Dinitrogen (N2) IS formed by sharing three electron pairs between two nitrogen atoms.The two nitrogen atoms are joined by triple bond(N≡N). The nitrogen atom is very small in size ,therefore the bond length is also quite small(109.8 pm) & as a result the bond dissociation energy is quite high(946Kj / mol).This reason leads N2 to be very less reactive at room temperature.