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I am having a difficult time understanding how bond order iscalculated, because

ID: 689016 • Letter: I

Question

I am having a difficult time understanding how bond order iscalculated, because I do not understand anti-bonding. I know thatbond order is b = 1/2 (n - n*). . On molecules such as C2, O2,NO-, O2+, etc I don't knowwhat to even look for with anti-bonding and I don't understand mybook. I know how to get their configurations. Is anti-bonding easyto see when you look at configuations? I would appreciate any help,thank you! I am having a difficult time understanding how bond order iscalculated, because I do not understand anti-bonding. I know thatbond order is b = 1/2 (n - n*). . On molecules such as C2, O2,NO-, O2+, etc I don't knowwhat to even look for with anti-bonding and I don't understand mybook. I know how to get their configurations. Is anti-bonding easyto see when you look at configuations? I would appreciate any help,thank you!

Explanation / Answer

The theory of antibonding orbitals comes from molecularorbital theory. Electrons in antibonding orbital make the moleculeless stable and the antibonding orbitals are higher energy thantheir corresponding bonding orbitals. If you know how to get theconfigurations for the molecule you should be able to easilycalculate the bond order. The orbitals that have a * at the end areantibonding orbitals and the orbitals that have no star are bondingorbitals. Therefore the bond order is the number of electrons inorbitals without stars minus the number of electrons in orbitalswith stars divided by 2. Make sure that you understand that theelectronic configuration of an ATOM is different that the MOconfiguration of a MOLECULE!! Good Luck:)