Question

How do you find the oxidation number of N in NO (nitrogen oxide)?

Answer 1

Hint: The oxidation number is the total charge exchanged during the formation of chemical bond with the other element. The nitrogen oxide is a neutral element. The sum of the oxidation number is equal to zero.

Complete step by step answer:
The oxidation number is defined as the number which are allocated to the elements during the chemical combination. In other words the oxidation number is the number of electrons that an atom in a molecule can share, lose or gain during the formation of a chemical bond with the other atom.
For a neutral molecule, the sum of the oxidation number of the atom is equal to zero. For charged molecules, the sum of the oxidation number of the atom is equal to the charge of the molecule.
In a molecule, the more electronegative atom has a negative oxidation number and less electronegative atom has positive oxidation number.
The given molecule is nitrogen oxide also known as nitrogen monoxide. The chemical formula or molecular formula of nitrogen oxide is NO. The nitrogen oxide is a neutral molecule, so the overall charge of the molecule is 0.

Atom	Charge
N	Initial-X
O	-2

For finding the charge of the nitrogen, first assume the charge of nitrogen N be x.
The charge of O is -2.
As the nitrogen oxide is the neutral atom therefore the overall charge will be zero.
Solve for x,
$ \Rightarrow x + ( - 2) = 0$
$ \Rightarrow x = + 2$

Atom	Charge
N	+2
O	-2

Therefore, the charge of nitrogen in nitrogen oxide is +2.

Note: The oxidation number is sometimes given as oxidation state. The oxidation numbers are different from formal charge which helps to determine the arrangement of the atoms. It is used to determine the change which occurs during the redox reaction.