A Brief Tutorial on drawing Lewis Structures of the N2F+ -#30

A simple procedure for writing Lewis structures is given in a previous article entitled “Lewis Structures and the Octet Rule”. Relevant worked examples were given in the following articles: Examples #1, #2, #3 , #4, #5, #6,  #7,  #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14,  #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22,  #23,  #24, #25, #26, #27, #28 and #29.

Let us consider the case of  the N₂F⁺cation:

Step 1: Connect the atoms with single bonds. 

Fig. 1: Connecting the atoms of  N₂F⁺ with single bonds according to step 1 of the method

Step 2: Calculate the # of electrons in π bonds (multiple bonds) using  formula (1): 

Where n in this case is 3 since N₂F⁺ consists of 3 atoms.

Where V = (2*5 + 7 ) - charge  = 17 – 1 = 16  

Therefore, P = 6n + 2 – V = 6 *3 + 2 – 16 = 4     Therefore, there are: 1) either 2 double bonds   2)  or 1 triple bond

Fig. 2: Lewis electron dot structures for the N₂F⁺ ion.  The least plausible structures are #1  (adjacent + charges ) and #3 (large charge separation).

Therefore, three plausible electron dot structures were drawn for the N₂F⁺ ion.