When paired with itself, nitrogen has three bonding pairs and one lone pair, so to covalently bond, it forms a triple bond.
Carbon has no lone pairs and 4 bonding pairs if it were to be covalently bonded to itself. So why does it not form quadruple bonds?
In: Chemistry
A triple bond is a sigma bond aligned between the two atoms and two pi bonds. The pi bonds are each formed by p-orbitals perpendicular to the sigma bond on each atom that overlap with each other.
A quadruple bond would be a single bond and three pi bonds. There are only two directions perpendicular to the sigma bond. To get a third pi bond pond you would need a third direction perpendicular to the sigma bond. You would need a fourth spatial dimension.
Latest Answers