Why do most compounds of nitrogen and oxygen never have an octet?
954151
Most oxygen compounds do have an octet.  Nirtogen compounds suffer from nitrogen having an odd number of valence electrons.  Still most nitrogen compounds tend to follow the octet rule.
1121516
Molecular oxygen is not essential for life. In fact, the earliest bacteria were poisoned by it as many are today (obligate anaerobic bacteria). There are even bacteria that use sulpher in many reactions where oxygen is used in humans (and most other living things).\n\nWater is a very unusual compound. Its ability to form hydrogen bonds allows it to dissolve a great number of other chemicals and so to provide a medium for the reactions of life. The only other chemical that even comes close is ammonia. But to have liquid ammonia requires low temperatures. That means the basic reactions would be rather slow. Whether that would make it difficult for life to form or not can't be answered with our knowledge at this point.\n\nThe only other substitution that is discussed with any frequency is silicon for carbon as the structural element for life.  The main difficulty with silicon is that it does not like to form double or triple bonds. This drastically reduces it's ability to form the type of chemicals that carry the information needed for life.\n\nOnce you get away from the elements and start looking at larger compounds, it seems likely that other life could be based on other amino acids, or on a genetic material other than DNA, or even something as simple as a mirror image chemistry (using amino acids that are mirror images of those in life on earth).
950673
no boron as with berylium among others is an exception to the octet rule. when bonding, the boron need only to share 3 bonds with (an)other element/s translating to 6 electrons for it to become stable... an example of a compound following this setup is triflouride (BF3)\n\ni hope that helps...
496847
N2- has a bond order of 3.\n\nhttp://www.meta-synthesis.com/webbook/39_diatomics/diatomics.html
708251
You should expect a molecular compound to form between N and O (as opposed to an ionic compound).  This is because N and O are both nonmetals.  An ionic compound will form when a metal and a nonmetal combine.  I believe that this is what your question is getting at.
555626
The Lewis dot structure would be that N in the middle with branches off to oxygen and 2 Fs and then one single electron will be on nitrogen and it is a radical I think. It is very reactive because of this one electron. The electron geometry will be something with sp3 orbital, I am not sure since it only has one electron. I would check up on that. Hope that helps
7062
it's outer electrons are in the d orbitals.  the s and p orbital elements (the first 2 columns and the last 6) are the more reactive ones that really want to form octets. none of those d-block transition metals are all that reactive, especially the ones in the middle there where gold is.
621519
I think you're lacking the basic concept of how materials exist chemically (in what state). Elements can combine to form compounds that have completely different properties from the original elements. Or elements can exist as themselves (which is very rare). Now, most of the time when us humans invent some chemical, from fertilizers to drugs, they are a mixture of compounds. A mixture is anything 'mixed' together, bot 'combined'. So, your fertilizer will have many elements in compound forms. If there are any life forms, such as bacteria in organic fertilizer, these are highly organized forms of thousands of chemical compounds,  integrated to perform certain functions.
825846
Indeed; this has to do with atomic orbital structure. Atoms try to fill their outermost electron shell with electrons. All atoms will release energy when they accept an electron (this energy is called its electron affinity) and absorb energy when they free an electron (called the ionization potential). Atoms that are a few electrons short of filling their last shell (such as O, F, Cl and most of Group IIIA-VIIA on the periodic table) "will do anything" to fill this last shell, and will release a great amount of energy in the diatomic form (O2). Thus two single O atoms are not stable very long, they would immediately react to form O2 which is far more stable. O is so unstable it would even react with O2 to form O3 if it can't find another O atom.\n\nThe fact that some atoms "exist only" in diatomic form in nature does not mean it is impossible to single out an O atom. If you bombard O2 atoms with light that has a higher energy than the bond, you will break it. And, for a brief period of time, will have to single O atoms which will very quickly react with one another, or with another molecule to achieve stability.\n\nHope that helps; good luck with your studies.
821051
start with carbon... carbon has 4 electrons in it's valence shell.  carbon will almost always be the central element in your compound.  \n\nfor the first one... oxygen has 6 valence electrons... a triple bond joins the 2 elements (therefore they share 6 electrons) and each element has one pair of unshared electrons... it looks like this\n    :C:::O:\nnotice that each atom has 8 electrons... and you can count the ones that carbon donated and the ones oxygen donated... maybe this will make it clearer\n    :C:;;O;    imagine that each ; is a pair of electrons from oxygen\n\nok, the 2nd one is quite easy to explain, but difficult to draw on the computer...   Carbon is the central atom, with 4 electrons.  It shares one elctron with each of the 4 other elements.  Hydrogen has 1 electron, and needs just one more to complete its shell (it is unique in this way; most need 8, but hydrogen just needs 2).  Chlorine has 7 electrons in its outer shell and needs just one more to complete its outer shell.\n\nSo, the lewis structure is drawn in a cross fashion.  \n\nHorizontally...   H:C:Cl:::\n\nVertically...   H:C:Cl:::   (where they cross at the C)\n\nSo, C has a pair of electrons on each side, and each Cl has a pair of electrons on each side (not 3 pairs on one side as I have drawn)\n\nCheck out the attached link for more help
8842
Well adding upto the given answers above, I would like to say it is not the only reason noble elements may form compounds. Compound like XeF4 are formed because Xe has a lot of non bonding electrons. It can donate it to form more compounds. Here are some links where you will find some neon and even helium compounds formed!!
285141
All moleciles do not contain multiple bonds.\n\nIonic bonds are usually single bonds.\n\nMore than one bond may be indifferent manners.\nIn case of H2O oxygen forms one bond with each hydrogen and thus there are two bonds.\n\nIn case of O2 molecule the two oxygen atoms form a double bond with each other.\n\nMore than one bond (as H2O) or a multiple bond (as O2, N2, H2C=CH2) depend on the valency number of the atoms.
826844
H\n |    \nC=O:  (You need 2 lone pairs on Oxygen)\n |   \nH\n\nIt doesnt get much better than that :)
59269
Not sure what you mean. But here is two possible answers for you anyways.\n\n1) Oxygen which can also exist as Ozone (O3) which is a Triatomic molecule.\n2) Or like IDUNNO pointed out Astatine which is usually not considered because of its rarity in nature.
788235
there is no such organic compound withh the formula C2H2NO. any organic compound with a single nitrogen must have atleast two hydrogens or oxygens attached to it. the given compound may exist in anionic state.
70419
Many organic molecules contain nitrogen, but the most obvious answer is proteins.
1069221
Electron configuration is related to the number of protons in the nucleus, hence, the element. In theory, all isotopes of a certain element should have the same electron configuration.\n\nWhat u were asking for is an electron configuration for oxygen anion, it has the same electron configuration as Neon\n\nelectron configuartion of O^2- = [Ne] (Neon core) = 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6