How would you rank the following diatomic molecules from largest number of bonding electrons to smallest number of bonding electrons?

chlorine, oxygen, carbon monoxide

1 Answer
anor277
Aug 3, 2016

Bond order reduces in the order, #CO#, #O_2#, and #Cl_2#.

Explanation:

We formally invoke a triple bond in #:C-=O#, a double bond in #O=O#, and a single bond in #Cl-Cl#. Given these representations, there are #6#, #4#, and #2# bonding electrons in each of the molecules.

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