Nitrogen Trifluoride (NF3) Properties (25 Helpful Facts)

Nitrogen Trifluoride is a gaseous molecule with trigonal pyramidal as its structure and tetrahedral as its geometry. Let us learn further facts in details below.

Nitrogen Trifluoride is a greenhouse gas. It has many industrial applications like in photovoltaics, light emitting diodes, solar cell etc.  It has negative Gibbs free energy and very low standard molar enthalpy. The heat capacity of Nitrogen Trifluoride is close to 53.3 J/mol K.

Nitrogen Trifluoride has very low solubility in water or any other polar solvents or acids due to its non polar nature. Let us study facts like IUPAC name, molar mass, density below.

NF3 IUPAC name

The IUPAC nomenclature of NF3 is Nitrogen trifluoride.

NF3 chemical formula

The chemical formula of Nitrogen Trifluoride is NF3.

nf3 logo
Trigonal pyramidal structure of NF3 with three sigma bonds.

NF3 CAS number

The CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service) number of NF3 is 77830-54-2 in the CAS registry database.

NF3 ChemSpider ID

The ChemSpider ID of Nitrogen Trifluoride (NF3) is 22959.

NF3 chemical classification

The chemical classification of NF3 is provided below in details.

  • NF3 is an inorganic molecule.
  • NF3 is a non-inflammable colorless gas.
  • NF3 is an unpleasant smell gas.
  • NF3 is a greenhouse gas.
  • NF3 has trigonal pyramidal structure.

NF3 molar mass

The molar mass of NF3 is 71.00 g/mol. It is the sum of the relative masses of nitrogen and 3 fluorine atoms.

NF3 color

NF3 is colourless. It does not have any colour due to its existence in gaseous form.

NF3 viscosity

The viscosity of NF3 has not been studied broadly due to its low thermal stability.

NF3 molar density

The molar density of NF3 is 3.00 kg/m3. It has greater density than water and it is heavier in weight.

NF3 melting point

The melting point of NF3 is -207.15 0C/ 66 K/ -340.9 0F and is very low in comparison to other compounds of N.

NF3 boiling point

The boiling point of NF3 is 129.06 0C/ 144.09 K/ -200.31 0F and the low value accounts for the low thermal stability.

NF3 state at room temperature

The state of NF3 at room temperature is gaseous. The low melting and boiling points accounts for the gaseous state of NF3.

NF3 covalent bond

NF3 is a molecule with covalent bonds. The electronegativity difference between N and F is 0.9 which is lower than 1.5 so it has covalent bonds being polar in nature as per Fajan’s rule.

NF3 covalent radius

NF3 has covalent radius as the bond is formed between two non metals with electronegavity difference lower than 1.5. The covalent radius of each N-F bonds in NF3 is approximated at 140 pm.

NF3 electron configurations

The electronic configuration of NF3 is represented by the electronic state of N and the connecting F atoms. Let us check in details below.

The electronic configuration of N in NF3 1s2 2s2 2p3 and the three fluorine atoms have 1s2 2s2 2p7. The three unpaired electrons in N forms three sigma bonds with three fluorine atoms. In doing so, the octet of N and F atoms are completed.

NF3 oxidation state

The oxidation state or charge of NF3 is overall neutral but the cationic part and anionic part have different oxidation states. N due to being trivalence has +3 oxidation state and fluorine being most electronegative has a -1 charge.

NF3 alkaline

NF3 is alkaline in nature due to the presence of 2 lone pairs of electrons in N that can show basic character to increase its alkalinity.

Is NF3 odorless?

NF3 is not odorless as it has a faint smell accounting for the presence of nitrogen in the molecule.

Is NF3 paramagnetic?

Paramagnetic are materials that shows paramagnetism owning to the presence of unpaired electrons in its domain. Let us understand in details below.

NF3 is not paramagnetic as the molecule has no unpaired electrons in its orbitals. The five valence electrons of N makes 3 sigma bonding with 3 fluorine atoms and the remaining two electrons of N stay as paired lone pair of electrons.

NF3 hydrates

NF3 form hydrates due to the presence of electronegative N and F atoms that can form intermolecular H-bonding as shown below with an example.

  • NF3 + 4H2O -> NF3. 4H2O

NF3 crystal structure

The crystal structure of NF3 in the alpha form is orthorhombic with lattice parameters a, b and c being not equal to one another and alpha = beta = gamma angles = 900.

NF3 polarity and conductivity

  • The polarity of NF3 is u = 0.24 D where D = Debye moment.
  • The low polarity value is due to the cancellation of dipole moment vectors of lone pair by 3 N-F bonds vectors.
  • The conductivity of NF3 is poor.
  • NF3 exact estimate value is however not studied broadly.

NF3 reaction with acid

NF3 reacts with acid as it is a lewis base in the gaseous state and reacts with amphoteric molecule like H2O as shown below.

  • 2NF3 (g)  + 3H2O (g) -> 6HF (g) + NO (g) + NO2 (g)

NF3 reaction with base

NF3 generally do not react with bases as it already has alkaline nature which makes it unreactive towards bases.

NF3 reaction with oxide

The reaction of NF3 with oxides generally metal oxides produces metal fluorides, N2 gas, O2 gas and few NOx gaseous particles where x = 1, 2. The general reaction is shown below.

  • NF3 + MgO -> N2 + O2 + NOx

NF3 reaction with metal

The reaction of NF3 with metal are shown below with examples.

  • R-MgX + NF3 -> R-NF2 + R-R
  • R-Li + NF3 -> R-R + R-NF2
  • R-Cu + NF3 -> R-R
  • NF3 reacts with transition metals and alkali metals very selectively.

Conclusion

 NF3 is a trigonal pyramidal orthorhombic crystalline structure with unpleasant smell. It exists in the gaseous state with very low melting and boiling point.