Why does the magnesium react with oxygen rather than nitrogen?
Answers
Explanation:
Oxygen is a very electronegative element, on the other hand magnesium is very electropositive. Electronegative values are based how strongly an element can pull electron density towards it and electropositive values are based on how likely the element is to let electron density go.
Another aspect to take note of is that through bond formation most elements want to reach a stable octet configuration where the it has 8 electrons around. There is exceptions to this like in the transition metals and the really low atomic number metals
Because these values are so far apart, the oxygen has so much pull it can strip the magnesium of its outer most electrons called valence electrons. This cause both atoms to get charged. The magnesium would lose 2 electrons to the oxygen, the oxygen already has 6 valence electrons so this would complete the octet around it. The magnesium would stil have a full outer shell also which is still stable. Now that both these atoms are charged, the undergo electrostatic interaction, i.e. positive and negative attract. The Magnesium has a charge of +2 and the oxygen of -2. This means you will form the compound MgO where the bond is ionic.
I hope this explains why they react for you :)
Just a suggestion, give a YouTube of the reaction of Magnesium and Oxygen. Its a simple reaction but its one I quite like. You can burn Mg in the air and it produces this amazingly bright light as the atoms react and energy produced.
The full balanced equation for the reaction is →
2Mg + O2 → 2MgO + Energy