Author Question: How many valence electrons are in ammonium ion, NH(subscript-4)+? (Read 874 times)

stevenposner · **on:** Sep 20, 2013

- 5 valence electrons
- 8 valence electrons
- 9 valence electrons

RYAN BANYAN · **Reply #1 on:** Sep 20, 2013

Nitrogen has 5
Each hydrogen has 1
and you are missing 1 from the + charge (means an e- left)

So you have 5+4-1 = 8

mia · **Reply #2 on:** Sep 20, 2013

If this question is asking what I think it is asking, we can look at the periodic table to answer it.

The N atom has five valence electrons (it is in group VA), and each H atom has one (Group IA). That brings us to nine.

BUT...the ion has a +1 charge, meaning it wants an electron because one has been taken away. So we end up with eight electrons. Hope this helps!

scienceeasy · **Reply #3 on:** Sep 20, 2013

It is really simple. you know what charge it carries. Don't you? It carries a charge of 1+, so that means it needs to lose one electron to stabilize itself. We can neither say that it has five valence electrons nor 8. Because even if it has a valence electron of five and if loses one electron, so it would certainly become 4 valence electrons, which is still unstable. Eight valence electron is an already stabled number for any atom and so even if it has such numbers of valence electrons, then it would be unreactive. And now you know why they would be unreactive. Because they are already stabled. Nine is acceptable! Because if it loses one electron, then the valence electrons of ammonium becomes 8 which is actually stabilized! That is perfect!