Question

Why carbon monooxide CO has small dipole moment?

Answer 1

Hi there,
It is So beacause CO has a dipole because bonds of different atoms originate, generally, asymmetrical distributions of charge. ... Thus, in CO carbon is more electronegative. Polar molecules are polar because they have permanent non-symmetrical charge distributions..hope you get it,,thanbk you

Answer 2

CO has a triple bond. Oxygen is more electronegative than carbon and so the molecule is polar with a slight negative charge at the oxygen end a a slight positive charge at the carbon end. Since so many bonding electrons are found in the pi and sigma bonds, there are fewer lone pairs on oxygen to give it a more negative partial charge. 


The electronegativity of oxygen is 3.44 and for carbon it is 2.55 with a difference of 0.89. That is not a trivial difference. It translates to a bond that has 32% ionic character. The low dipole moment is more a result of the bonding electron distribution rather than electronegativity difference. 

hope it helped.....☺️