Chemistry help?

Question

I cannot grasp the concept of an Ionic compound. Mg3N2?
Where/how do you get the 3 and the 2? I have looked at pictures and studied this but it will not sink in.
Thank you

Answer 1

If you look on your periodic table, you will notice that their are numbers above the columns of elements. Magnesium is under column #2. This means it has a charge of +2 when it is an ion.

Now, look at the column in which N is found. The column number is 15. Take the ones-digit number ( which is 5) and substract 8 from it. 5-8= -3. This means that Nitrogen has a charge of -3 when it is an ion.

So we write their ions like this:

Mg+2 and N-3

Now we switch their charges and make them into subscripts.
The result is Mg3N2. This means that in the compound Mg3n2 there are 3 magnesium atoms and 2 nitrogen atoms.

Answer 2

N has 5 electrons on shell L . So it need 3 electrons to fill the shell , giving rise to the ion N3+

Mg has 2 electrons on shell M. if it gives to electron, we have the ion Mg2+

So the ionic compound Mg3N2 is formed from three ions Mg2+ and
2 ions N3+

There is equality of the charges 6 positive and 6 negative

Answer 3

The basis for ionic compounds is electron transfer.

Every element will either give or receive electrons based on the number of electrons in their energy shells. The purpose of this is to fill each energy shell to provide electron. So an example would be

Na and Cl are both in groups 1 and group 7 in the periodic table. This means Na will give 1 electron and Cl will receive one, this gives a chemical formula of NaCl

Answer 4

I think Mg3N2 is covalent compound not ionic.
Mg is bivalent element while N have 5 valence electrons in its outermost shell.
You can get the structure of Mg3N2 by drawing Lewis diagram. I really think it is covalent. N possess one lone pair of electron in forming bond with Mg.