question_answer

Nitrogen and chlorine have same electro negativity \[(3\cdot 0)\]. Molecular nitrogen is inert at room temperature while chlorine is highly reactive. How will you account for it?

Answer:

                In nitrogen molecule, the atoms are linked by triple bond \[(N\equiv N)\] whereas chlorine atoms are linked to each other by single bond \[(Cl-Cl)\] in chlorine molecule. Due to very high bond dissociation enthalpy \[(946\,kJ\,mo{{l}^{-1}}\,),\] molecular nitrogen is very little reactive while molecular chlorine is highly reactive because the bond dissociation enthalpy is very small\[(242.6\,kJ\,mo{{l}^{-1}})\].