Talk:Nitrous oxide

How am I to picture the structure of this molecule? Oxygen wants to acquire two electrons, and nitrogen wants to acquire three or to shed five. So how to they come to an agreement? AxelBoldt 16:27 Nov 25, 2002 (UTC)

this is just a guess, but I'd say this: The one O bonds to both N, so it's happy :-). The angle between two bonds from O is about 120 deg (I think -- check the article on oxygen); that puts the two N close enough to form a double covalent bond between them. So each N has three bonds: one to O and a double to the other N. All present and correct. -- Tarquin 17:51 Nov 25, 2002 (UTC)

Yup, makes sense. I hope nature is smart enough to have figured that one out in the same way that you did :-)

Actually, http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/n2o/n2ov.htm claims that the the three molecules are chained, with the first N double bounded to the second which in turn is double bounded to the oxygen. AxelBoldt 16:23 Nov 26, 2002 (UTC)