The Bond Order of Co and No

The Bond order of Co and No is: 

a.) 3 and 2 

b.) 3 and 2.5 

c.) 3 and 1.3 

d.) 3 and 3.5?

The correct answer is “b) 3 and 2.5”

Bond Order

The number of bound electron pairs between two atoms is known as bond order. The bond order of the above atoms can be determined using molecular orbital theory.

Let’s look at a di-nitrogen example to better grasp the bond order. Because there are three chemical bonds connecting the two nitrogen atoms in diatomic nitrogen (N = N), the bond order is 3.

To determine bond order, we can use molecular orbital theory. Bond order is defined in molecular orbital theory as half of the difference between the number of bonding and antibonding electrons.

Bond order = 12[Number of bonding electrons – Number of antibonding electrons)]

The molecular orbital electronic configuration of CO molecule;

1s², * 1s², 2s² ,* 2s², 2p_x2 = 2p_y² , 2p_y²

The bond order of carbon monoxide molecules is 3 according to the given computation.

The bond order of Nitric oxide will now be determined using the same molecular orbital approach.

So, first, we’ll write down Nitric oxide’s molecular orbital configuration.

N – O ; 1s² ,* 1s² , 2s² ,* 2s² ,2p_x² = 2p_y² ,2p_y²,*2p_x¹

Bond order = 10 – 52 = 2.5

A nitric oxide molecule has a bond order of 2.5.

As a result of the preceding explanation, we now know that carbon monoxide and nitric oxide molecules have bond orders of 3 and 2.5, respectively.

Hence, the correct answer is “option b”.

The new molecule will be destabilized by each electron that enters an anti-bonding molecular orbital. It’s worth noting that the molecule can’t form if the bond order is zero.

Higher bond orders suggest that the new molecule will be more stable.