Why does nitrogen have such a low boiling point of -196?

Answer 1

Its all in Gibb's free energy. The state of the compound that has lower Gibb free energy is preferred at a particular temperature.

At the boiling point, both liquid and gaseous states have equal gibbs energy. Above the boiling point, gaseous state has lesser gibbs energy than the liquid state and vice versa for below the boiling point.

Gibbs free energy is defined as H - TS where H is entalphy, S is entropy and T is temperature (going a bit towards complicated thermodynamics). entalphy for a compound can be found from the energy produced by forming that compound. entropy is defined from the disturbances like vibrations, etc in the compound. By complex calculations, you might get the nitrogen compound to be so.

Answer 2

Nitrogen is a non-polar diatomic molecule. The very strong triple bond means that the molecule is difficult to polarise. So there are no dipole-dipole forces, and the van der Waals are very weak, too. This explains the very low boiling point.

Answer 3

Basicaly thermal energy is handled at the atomic level by vibration - think of it like oscillating crystals you might find in a comptuer's clock. To "vibrate" a nitrogen atom not much push is needed. The more individual atoms vibrate, the more their properties change in terms of solid/liquid/gas, etc. However an iron atom is a monster of mass compared to that of a nitrogen atom, so you need a lot more "push" (thermal energy) to wobble it back and forth. I tried to word this anecdotally - it's not a perfect analogy. Hope it helps.

Answer 4

Sounds like a quiz question. So what you need to know is the type of forces that are at work, i.e. London forces, hydrogen bonding, covalent bonds, and ionic bonds. Now all you have to do is figure out which forces act upon the diatomic N molecule and you'll have your answer.

Answer 5

Nitrogen molecules usually exist in the form of N2 with trivalent (triple) bonds - the strongest bonds in nature. (Most molecules are made up of single or double bonds). These bonds make the material of nitrogen very hard to change state, thus requiring a lot of energy to convert nitrogen to liquid (high pressure and extreme cold).

Answer 6

All gases have super-low boiling points.