Draw an MO energy diagram for CO. (Use the energy ordering
of O2...

Question

Draw an MO energy diagram for CO. (Use the energy ordering 
of O2.) Predict the bond order and make a sketch of the lowest 
energy bonding molecular orbital.

Accepted Answer

hey everyone. We're asked to write out the molecular orbital energy diagram for chloral boring. And to determine its bond order. And to draw out the lowest energy bonding molecular orbital first, let's go ahead and calculate the total number of valence electrons we have from boron. We have three electrons since it is in our group three A. And for chlorine since it's in our group seven A. This will give us seven valence electrons. So in total we have 10 valence electrons. Now let's go ahead and draw out our molecular orbital diagram. Starting off with our sigma s followed by our sigma s anti bonding. We next have our sigma P. Next we have our pipi followed by our pi P anti bonding and lastly we have our sigma p anti bonding. Now let's go ahead and fill up our molecular orbital energy diagram. Using hands rule since we had 10 valence electrons, we're going to start filling up our sigma s so we have 12. Next we have our sigma s anti bonding. Now we have four And we continue filling up until we reach those 10 valence electrons. Next we have 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. Now this is going to be our molecular orbital energy diagram for our compound. Now let's go ahead and determine our bond order and this is going to be half times the number of electrons in our bonding molecular orbital which is going to be eight in this case. And we're going to subtract that eight by two which is the number of electrons in our anti bonding molecular orbital. When we calculate this out, we end up with a bond order of three. And we were also asked to draw out our lowest energy bonding molecular orbital, which is going to be our sigma S. So these are going to be our final answers now. I hope that made sense and let us know if you have any questions.

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