According to MO theory, what does the overlap of two s atomic orbitals produce?

2 Answers
Nov 19, 2016

It makes one #sigma_(ns)# and one #sigma_(ns)^"*"# molecular orbital (MO). These are known as bonding and antibonding MOs, respectively.

A simple depiction of these MOs is in an MO diagram:

And a depiction of #ns# sigma bonding and #np# pi bonding is:

Inorganic Chemistry, Miessler et al.

Nov 19, 2016

The overlap of 2 atomic orbitals produces molecular orbitals

Explanation:

The 2 MO are the bonding and the antibonding molecular orbitals

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