why nitrogen can't expand its covalecy beyond 4?
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As nitrogen has 1 lone pair and 3 electrons, either it should have maximum covalency of 5 or 3. But why does it have a maximum covalency of 4 instead?
Why did it leave 1 electron? Why did it have to break a lone pair?
Recall that covalency is the number of shared electron pairs formed by an atom of that element. Nitrogen's maximum covalency is indeed 4. And no, it does not break up its lone pair.
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The fourth covalent bond is actually a coordinate covalent bond, formed when that nitrogen atom's lone pair gets donated to a proton. This is also the maximum covalency for the nitrogen atom, since it has no more unpaired electrons that could be paired up with other atoms, to form more covalent bonds.
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