A major challenge in implementing the “hydrogen economy”is finding a safe, lightweight, and compact way of storinghydrogen for use as a fuel. The hydrides of light metalsare attractive for hydrogen storage because they can store ahigh weight percentage of hydrogen in a small volume. Forexample, NaAlH4 can release 5.6% of its mass as H2 upondecomposing to NaH1s2, Al1s2, and H21g2. NaAlH4 possessesboth covalent bonds, which hold polyatomic anionstogether, and ionic bonds. (a) Write a balanced equationfor the decomposition of NaAlH4. (b) Which element inNaAlH4 is the most electronegative? Which one is the leastelectronegative? (c) Based on electronegativity differences,predict the identity of the polyatomic anion. Draw a Lewisstructure for this ion. (d) What is the formal charge on hydrogenin the polyatomic ion?
A major challenge in implementing the “hydrogen economy”
is finding a safe, lightweight, and compact way of storing
hydrogen for use as a fuel. The hydrides of light metals
are attractive for hydrogen storage because they can store a
high weight percentage of hydrogen in a small volume. For
example, NaAlH4 can release 5.6% of its mass as H2 upon
decomposing to NaH1s2, Al1s2, and H21g2. NaAlH4 possesses
both covalent bonds, which hold polyatomic anions
together, and ionic bonds. (a) Write a balanced equation
for the decomposition of NaAlH4. (b) Which element in
NaAlH4 is the most electronegative? Which one is the least
electronegative? (c) Based on electronegativity differences,
predict the identity of the polyatomic anion. Draw a Lewis
structure for this ion. (d) What is the formal charge on hydrogen
in the polyatomic ion?
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