Drawing the Lewis Structure for N2H2

Viewing Notes:

  • N2H2 is straightforward with no double or triple bonds.
  • In the N2H2 Lewis structure the two Nitrogen (N) atoms go in the center (Hydrogen always goes on the outside).
  • Hydrogen (H) only needs two valence electrons to have a full outer shell.
  • In the Lewis structure for N2H2 there are a total of 12 valence electrons.
  • In order to complete the octets on the Nitrogen (N) atoms you will need to form a double bond between the N atoms.


Transcript: This is the N2H2 Lewis Structure. Nitrogen is in Group 5 or fifteen on the periodic table so it has five valence electrons but we have two of them. Hydrogen is in group 1, it has one valence electron. We have two Hydrogens. So ten plus two gives us a total of twelve valence electrons. Hydrogens always go on the outside so let's put the two Nitrogens in the middle. And then we can just put Hydrogen on the outside of each of those. So we've used two Hydrogens and two Nitrogens. We have twelve total valence electrons to work with.

We'll put a pair between the Nitrogen and the Hydrogen to form a chemical bond. Over here and then in the center. So we've used two, four, six and Hydrogen only needs two valence electrons for a full outer shell. So we've actually filled the outer shell of both the Hydrogens. So we won't put any more there. Let's go to the center atoms, the Nitrogen. So we have two, four, six, eight, ten, and twelve. We've used all twelve valence electrons. At this point this Nitrogen has an octet but this Nitrogen right here only has six valence electrons so it needs two more.

What we can do is take these two valence electrons here and move into the center and form a double bond. We're still using twelve total valence electrons but now this Nitrogen, it has eight, and this Nitrogen has eight. So we've used all of the twelve valence electrons that we started with and everything has full outer shells.

So this is the Lewis structure for N2H2 and this is Dr. B., thanks for watching.