May 30th 2013, 21:36:30
1. You don't need a metal to form an ion. Look at NO3 -, PO4 3-, CO3 2- for example. I can't tell u WHY, it is so.
2. Now with N you picked one slippery dude, cause it can have all kinds of different oxidation states, including 3- in ur case. So three 4 H's bond to N making it NH4 + and along comes Cl- and sticks to it.
3. Lewis structure should look like this: one solo dot above N, plus 4 dashes connecting it to the 4 H's. then u draw a big bracket around that monster with an upper "+" and then put ur Cl- next to it.
4. Cl- will have 4 dashes (i.e. 8 dots) around it representing the electrons.
5. I think that does it, if not, we're at least getting pretty close to it.
