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What is the formal charge of the nitrogen atom in the molecule of ammonia (NH3)? Show your calculations.

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To calculate the formal charge of the nitrogen atom in ammonia  NH3 , we can use the following formula:Formal charge =  Valence electrons of the atom  -  Non-bonding electrons  -  1/2  Bonding electrons For nitrogen  N , the number of valence electrons is 5  as it belongs to Group 15 in the periodic table .In ammonia, nitrogen is bonded to three hydrogen atoms, and each N-H bond has 2 bonding electrons. So, there are a total of 3  2 = 6 bonding electrons.Nitrogen has one lone pair  non-bonding electrons  in ammonia, which consists of 2 electrons.Now, we can calculate the formal charge:Formal charge of N =  5  -  2  -  1/2  6 Formal charge of N = 5 - 2 - 3Formal charge of N = 0So, the formal charge of the nitrogen atom in the ammonia molecule  NH3  is 0.
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