{"id":26208,"date":"2025-06-19T11:04:56","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T11:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/?p=26208"},"modified":"2025-06-19T11:04:59","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T11:04:59","slug":"use-molecular-orbital-theory-to-complete-the-ground-state-electron-configuration-for-each-of-the-molecules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/use-molecular-orbital-theory-to-complete-the-ground-state-electron-configuration-for-each-of-the-molecules\/","title":{"rendered":"Use molecular orbital theory to complete the ground state electron configuration for each of the molecules."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Use molecular orbital theory to complete the ground state electron configuration for each of the molecules. Molecule NF NF+ NF NF bond order: Ground state electron configuration NF+ bond order: Determine the bond order of each of the molecules. Answer Bank 3 Question source: McQuarrie, Rock, And Gallogly 4e &#8211; General Chemistry<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-light-green-cyan-color\">The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To solve this problem using <strong>molecular orbital (MO) theory<\/strong>, we will examine the molecular orbital configurations of <strong>NF<\/strong> and <strong>NF\u207a<\/strong> and determine their <strong>bond orders<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 1: Determine the total number of electrons<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>N (Nitrogen)<\/strong> has 7 electrons<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>F (Fluorine)<\/strong> has 9 electrons<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>So, <strong>NF<\/strong> has 7 + 9 = <strong>16 electrons<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>NF\u207a<\/strong> loses one electron \u2192 <strong>15 electrons<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 2: Use the MO energy diagram for heteronuclear diatomic molecules<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>NF is a heteronuclear diatomic molecule. The molecular orbital ordering resembles that of oxygen and fluorine molecules (because F dominates in electronegativity). The orbital energy order is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">scssCopyEdit<code>\u03c3(1s), \u03c3*(1s), \u03c3(2s), \u03c3*(2s), \u03c3(2p), \u03c0(2p), \u03c0*(2p), \u03c3*(2p)\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 3: Fill the molecular orbitals<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">For <strong>NF (16 electrons)<\/strong>:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Fill the orbitals in order:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u03c3(1s)\u00b2<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u03c3*(1s)\u00b2<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u03c3(2s)\u00b2<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u03c3*(2s)\u00b2<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u03c3(2p)\u00b2<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u03c0(2p)\u2074<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u03c0*(2p)\u00b2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bond Order<\/strong> = \u00bd \u00d7 [(# of bonding electrons) \u2212 (# of antibonding electrons)]<br>= \u00bd \u00d7 [(2 + 2 + 2 + 4) \u2212 (2 + 2 + 2)]<br>= \u00bd \u00d7 [10 \u2212 6]<br>= <strong>2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">For <strong>NF\u207a (15 electrons)<\/strong>:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Remove <strong>one electron<\/strong> from the highest energy orbital (\u03c0*(2p)):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u03c3(1s)\u00b2<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u03c3*(1s)\u00b2<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u03c3(2s)\u00b2<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u03c3*(2s)\u00b2<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u03c3(2p)\u00b2<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u03c0(2p)\u2074<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u03c0*(2p)\u00b9<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bond Order<\/strong> = \u00bd \u00d7 [(10) \u2212 (5)] = <strong>2.5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Final Answers:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>NF bond order<\/strong>: <strong>2<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>NF\u207a bond order<\/strong>: <strong>2.5<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ground State Electron Configurations:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>NF (16e\u207b)<\/strong>:<br>\u03c3(1s)\u00b2 \u03c3*(1s)\u00b2 \u03c3(2s)\u00b2 \u03c3*(2s)\u00b2 \u03c3(2p)\u00b2 \u03c0(2p)\u2074 \u03c0*(2p)\u00b2<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>NF\u207a (15e\u207b)<\/strong>:<br>\u03c3(1s)\u00b2 \u03c3*(1s)\u00b2 \u03c3(2s)\u00b2 \u03c3*(2s)\u00b2 \u03c3(2p)\u00b2 \u03c0(2p)\u2074 \u03c0*(2p)\u00b9<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Explanation:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Molecular orbital theory combines atomic orbitals to form molecular orbitals that are spread over the entire molecule. Electrons fill lower-energy bonding orbitals before entering higher-energy antibonding orbitals. A <strong>bond order<\/strong> reflects the net bonding strength between atoms: the higher the bond order, the stronger the bond. In this case, <strong>NF\u207a<\/strong> has a <strong>higher bond order<\/strong> than <strong>NF<\/strong>, which means removing an electron (from an antibonding orbital) actually strengthens the bond. This is a good illustration of how molecular orbital theory can predict trends in bond strength based on electron configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"722\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner10-70.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-26209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner10-70.jpeg 722w, https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner10-70-212x300.jpeg 212w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 722px) 100vw, 722px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Use molecular orbital theory to complete the ground state electron configuration for each of the molecules. Molecule NF NF+ NF NF bond order: Ground state electron configuration NF+ bond order: Determine the bond order of each of the molecules. Answer Bank 3 Question source: McQuarrie, Rock, And Gallogly 4e &#8211; General Chemistry The Correct Answer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quiz-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26210,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26208\/revisions\/26210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}