By Team Aakash Byju's

Which Halide Is Most Stable Towards Hydrolysis?

Can you answer this? which halide is... Select the halide that is most inert towards hydrolysis at room temperature.

1. PCl3                2. NF3 3. SiCl4              4. NCl3

The answer is NF3.

Come let's check 'why'

Hydrolysis’ is the chemical breakdown of a compound in reaction with water.

This happens by breaking a covalent bond in the compound by inserting a water molecule across the bond.

Halides like CCl4  and CF4 have carbon as the central atom which does not have any vacant d orbitals in it.

But, in the case of NF3, neither nitrogen nor fluorine has a vacant d-orbital for coordination.

This is why NF3 is most stable towards hydrolysis compared to other halides like CCl4 and CF4 and cannot be hydrolysed.