Question

Give one example of a Triatomic molecule.

Answer 1

Hint: Diatomic molecule means the molecule contains two atoms in their composition and triatomic means the molecule contains three atoms in their composition. The three atoms should be the same or different.

Complete answer:
- In the question it is given that to write an example for triatomic molecules.
- Tri means three. Therefore triatomic molecules contain three atoms.
- The different example for triatomic molecules is Carbon dioxide ($C{O}_2$ ), Ozone ( $O_3$ ), Water ( $H_{2}O$ ) and etc.
- From the above examples we can say that the three atoms in a triatomic molecule can be the same or different.
- The triatomic molecule should have three atoms and it is not mandatory to have all three same atoms.

Additional information:
- The shape of the triatomic molecules is going to depend on the number of lone pairs of electrons present in the structure of the molecule.
- For example water is a triatomic molecule containing two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen in its composition. The oxygen has two lone pairs of electrons, making the structure of the molecule as bent with a dipole moment of 1.85D.
- Coming to the structure of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide contains three atoms, one carbon and two oxygen atoms with a linear structure and has zero dipole moment.

Note: The number of atoms in a molecule is called atomicity. The atomicity of triatomic molecules is three due to the presence of three atoms. The atomicity of diatomic molecules like hydrogen and nitrogen is two due to the presence of two atoms.