Question

According to the molecular orbital (mo) treatment of the no molecule, what are the bond order and the number of unpaired electrons, respectively?

Answer 1

Attached is the MOT of NO molecule.

1. Bond order is calculated is
`\frac{\text{number of e- in bonding orbital - number of e- in antibonding molecular orbital }}{2}`

In present case, number of e- in bonding orbital = 6
number of e- in anti-bonding orbital = 1
∴ Bond-order =
`\frac{\text{6-1 }}{2}` = 2.5

2. From the attached figure, it can be seen that NO has one unpaired electron in π* orbital.