Chemistry · Molecular orbital electronic configurations of homonuclear diatomic molecules, the concept of bond order, bond length and bond energy

The bond order depends on the number of electrons in the bonding and non bonding

The bond order depends on the number of electrons in the bonding and non bonding orbitals. Which of the following statements is /are correct about bond order?

  • A. Bond order cannot have a negative value.
  • B. It always has an integral value
  • C. It is a nonzero quantity.
  • D. It can assume any value-positive or negative, integral or fractional, including zero.

Step-by-step solution

Bond order is defined as (number of bonding electrons - number of antibonding electrons)/2. While it can be zero (e.g., He2) or fractional (e.g., O2-), it is always non-negative because a negative value would indicate that antibonding electrons outnumber bonding electrons, which does not correspond to a stable bond. Therefore, bond order cannot be negative.
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  • Bond energy is maximum in?
  • is:
  • Which of the following facts regarding bond order is not valid?
  • The bond length (pm) of and respectively is: