Monday, February 5, 2007

Is it aromatic? Is it basic?..… nitrogen

Here’s the trick to nitrogen – if it only has 3 bonds total, draw in a lone pair of electrons and count them up with the rest of pi electrons in the ring. If the nitrogen has 4 bonds (or, alternatively, a +), it has sp3 hybridization and it is nonaromatic. If the nitrogen’s pair of electrons is “taken” for the ring, that nitrogen isn’t basic. If the electron pair is available, that nitrogen is basic.

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