Which of the following are paramagnetic?

#O_2^(2-) ,O_2^- ,O_2#

1 Answer
anor277
May 31, 2018

Well #"peroxide"#, #""^(-)O-O^(-)# is A DIAMAGNET...

Explanation:

...the ion contains NO UNPAIRED electrons. And #"superoxide..."#, #O_2^(-)#, i.e.

commons.wikimedia.org

...contains ONE UNPAIRED electron....this beast is PARAMAGNETIC.

And, surprisingly, dioxygen gas, #O_2#...is ALSO a PARAMAGNET. This cannot rationalized on the basis of Lewis dot formulae...and #"MOT"# must by invoked. The HOMO is DEGENERATE, and the two electrons occupy TWO orbitals...

s10.lite.msu.edu

And so #"superoxide"#, and #"dioxygen"# are the paramagnets...

Related questions
Impact of this question
4550 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License