Question #6fda7

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Stefan V.
Feb 4, 2015

Yes, ammonia (#"NH"_3#) is capable of forming hydrogen bonds. A molecule that can hydrogen bond must have hydrogen atoms bonded to one of the three most electronegative elements: oxygen, nitrogen, or fluorine.

Let's examine ammonia's Lewis structure.

http://www.sciencegeek.net/Chemistry/taters/Unit3LewisStructures.htm

The possibility of hydrogen bonding is given by the presence of a lone pair of electrons on the nitrogen atom. Each lone pair present on the electronegative atom will attract one hydrogen atom from another ammonia molecule.

This happens because of the attraction that takes place between the partial negative charge that exists on the more electronegative atom and the partial positive charge that exists on the hydrogen atom.

http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/162othermolecules.html

However, ammonia's capacity to form hydrogen bonds will be limited by the fact that the nitrogen atom has only one lone pair of electrons. As a result, in a group of ammonia molecules not all hydrogen atoms will form hydrogen bonds because of the limited supply of lone pairs #-># read more about that here:

http://socratic.org/questions/can-any-one-explian-the-number-of-hydrogen-bonding-in-ammoina-molecule

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