Which of the following molecules has the highest bond order?
Practice Questions
Q1
Which of the following molecules has the highest bond order?
N2
O2
F2
C2
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
Which of the following molecules has the highest bond order?
Step 1: Understand what bond order means. Bond order is a measure of the number of chemical bonds between a pair of atoms.
Step 2: Identify the molecules you are comparing. In this case, we are looking at N2 and possibly other molecules.
Step 3: Count the total number of bonding and antibonding electrons for each molecule. Bonding electrons help hold the atoms together, while antibonding electrons can weaken the bond.
Step 4: For N2, there are 10 bonding electrons and 2 antibonding electrons.
Step 5: Use the bond order formula: (Number of bonding electrons - Number of antibonding electrons) / 2.
Step 6: Plug in the numbers for N2: (10 - 2) / 2 = 8 / 2 = 4. However, this is incorrect; the correct bond order for N2 is 3, as it has 6 bonding electrons and 2 antibonding electrons.
Step 7: Compare the bond orders of N2 with the bond orders of other molecules to determine which has the highest bond order.