Chapter 9, Problem 9C.3E

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation:

The shorter bond length of between two given molecule has to be predicted using electron configuration.

Concept Introduction:

Molecular orbital (MO) theory is a method of determining molecular structure in which electrons are not assigned to individual bonds between atoms, but are treated as moving under the influence of the nuclei in the whole molecule.

According to this theory there are two types of orbitals,

1. (1) Bonding orbitals
2. (2) Antibonding orbitals

Electrons in molecules are filled in accordance with the energy; the anti-bonding orbital has more energy than the bonding orbitals.

The electronic configuration of molecule can be represented as follows,

${\left({\text{σ}}_{\text{1s}}\right)}^2{\left({\text{σ*}}_{\text{1s}}\right)}^2{\left({\text{σ}}_{\text{2s}}\right)}^2{\left({\text{σ*}}_{\text{2s}}\right)}^2{\left({\text{σ}}_{\text{2p}}\right)}^2{\left( {\pi }_{\text{2p}}\right)}^4{\left( \pi {*}_{\text{2p}}\right)}^2$

The symbol * represent the antibonding orbital

Sigma (σ) bonds are the bonds in which shared hybrid orbital’s electron density are concentrated along the internuclear axis.

Pi (π) bonds are the bonds in which shared un-hybridized orbital’s (p, d, etc.) electron density are concentrated in above and below of the plane of the molecule.

Bond order: It is the measure of number of electron pairs shared between two atoms.

$\text{Bond}\text{order}\text{=}\frac{\text{1}}{\text{2}}\left(\begin{array}{l}\text{Number}\text{of}\text{electrons}\text{in}\text{bondoing}\text{MOs-}\\ \text{Number}\text{of}\text{electrons}\text{in}\text{antibonding}\text{MOs}\end{array}\right)$