Question

Nitrogen became the most abundant gas in today's atmosphere because Choose one: nitrogen is highly reactive. nitrogen is relatively inert. nitrogen was the most abundant gas left over from the solar nebula. nitrogen is the only gas given off by volcanic outgassing.

Answer 1

The correct answer is: 'Nitrogen is relatively inert'.

Step-by-step explanation:

As, atomic number of nitrogen is 7 and its electronic distribution is 2, 5. Hence, there are 5 valence electrons present in a nitrogen atom. And, to attain stability it will gain three electrons from a donor atom. Hence, it will make a triple bond.

`[N]=1s^22s^22p^3`

Therefore, nitrogen has 5 valence electrons and makes 3 bonds in neutral compounds.Thus nitrogen will combine with another nitrogen atom to completes its octet to form
`N_2` gas molecule. Due to the presence of this triple bond, the gas molecule is almost inert as its bond dissociation energy is very high.

Hence, the correct option is:- nitrogen is relatively inert.