Question

The least number of oxyacids are formed by:
a.) Nitrogen
b.) Chlorine
c.) Fluorine
d.) Sulphur

Answer 1

Hint: An oxyacid contains an oxygen atom bonded to one hydrogen atom and bonded to one other element. Oxyacids dissociate in water and form a cation (\[{{H}^{+}}\]) and the anion (\[O{{X}^{-}}\]) of the acid. Oxyacids are going to represent things like X-O-H.
Where X = Element like nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus etc. and oxyacids are also called oxoacids.

Complete step by step answer:
We have to find which element gives less number of oxyacids from the given options in the question.
Coming to the given options, option A, Nitrogen. The oxyacids of Nitrogen are Nitric acid (\[HN{{O}_{3}}\]), Nitrous acid (\[HN{{O}_{2}}\]), Nitroxyl (\[HNO\]), Nitroxylic acid (\[{{H}_{4}}{{N}_{2}}{{O}_{4}}\]).

Coming to option B, Chlorine. Chlorine forms four types of oxyacids. They are Hypochlorous acid (HOCl), Chlorous acid (HOClO), Chloric acid (\[HOCl{{O}_{2}}\]) and perchloric acid (\[HOCl{{O}_{3}}\]).

Coming to option C, Fluorine. Fluorine forms only one oxoacid HOF because of high electronegativity and small size.

Coming to option D, Sulphur. Sulphur forms more than ten types of oxyacids like sulphurous acid (\[{{H}_{2}}S{{O}_{3}}\]), Sulphuric acid (\[{{H}_{2}}S{{O}_{4}}\]) and etc.
Therefore among the given options fluorine only forms less number of oxyacids.
So, the correct answer is “Option C”.

Note: An oxygen containing acid is called oxyacids. Mostly covalent nonmetallic oxide compounds react with water and form acidic oxides. Means they react with water and form oxyacids. The strength of the oxyacids is going to depend on the extent to which they dissociate in water. The acid strength of the oxyacids increases as the electronegativity of the central element increases in the molecule.