Question
Nitrogen and chlorine have the same electronegativity but only former shows intermolecular hydrogen bonding. Discuss.
Solution
Both N and Cl have the same electronegativity (3.0), but the atomic size of nitrogen is much smaller than that of chlorine. Thus, nitrogen atom polarises the covalent bond N-H much more than done by Cl atom in H-Cl bond. As a result, the only nitrogen atom is able to exhibit intermolecular hydrogen bonding.
