Question

Molecular orbitals of diatomic molecules and plots of the multicentre orbitals.

Answer 1

A molecule of oxygen has 16 electrons and is formed by the combination of two atoms of oxygen each having 8 electrons. Now the electronic configuration of atomic oxygen is 1s2, 2s2, 2p4. In a molecule of oxygen, the atomic orbitals get mixed to form molecular orbitals. The number of molecular orbitals is equal to the sum of the atomic orbitals.

The electronic configuration becomes:

(s1s)2 (s*1s)2 (s2s)2 (s*2s)2 (s2pz)2 ()()

The molecular orbital energy level diagram of O2 molecule can be drawn as: 

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