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.
