Question

Which among the following oxides of nitrogen is called nitrogen sesquioxide?
(a) $N{{O}_{2}}$
(b)${{N}_{2}}{{O}_{3}}$
(c) ${{N}_{2}}{{O}_{4}}$
(d) ${{N}_{2}}{{O}_{5}}$

Answer 1

Hint: The sesquioxide is generally that oxide which contains two atoms of any substance and the three atoms of the oxygen and the oxidation state of the nitrogen in that compound is mostly found to be +3. Now identify that compound.

Complete step by step answer:
Nitrogen is a non- metal having the atomic number 7 and mass number as14 and lies in the 15th group of the periodic table and has the electronic configuration as $1{{s}^{2}}2{{s}^{2}}{{p}^{3}}$ . It reacts with oxygen forming various oxides of nitrogen i.e. The nitrogen oxide $NO$ nitrogen dioxide $N{{O}_{2}}$ , dinitrogen trioxide${{N}_{2}}{{O}_{3}}$ , dinitrogen tetroxide ${{N}_{2}}{{O}_{4}}$etc.
The oxide of nitrogen which is used as the nitrogen sesquioxide( sesquioxide are those compounds which contains three oxygen atoms and two atoms of any metal atom and the oxidation of every metal in the sesquioxide compound is found to be always+3 only) is dinitrogen trioxide i.e. ${{N}_{2}}{{O}_{3}}$.
${{N}_{2}}{{O}_{3}}$ is formed when the nitrogen dioxide reacts with the nitric oxide and it is a bluish color liquid which has very unpleasant odour and has a tendency to get dissociate back into the nitrogen dioxide and nitric oxide and it has a very low boiling point i.e. about $^{\circ }C$.
Thus, the oxide of nitrogen which is called as the nitrogen sesquioxide is ${{N}_{2}}{{O}_{3}}$i.e. the dinitrogen trioxide.

Hence, option(b) is correct.

Note: The sesquioxide mostly acts as the binding agents and they have been widely used in the applications such as the transistors and in the detectors such as the solar -blind UV detector , infrared detectors etc.