Chemical Bonding and Molecular Structure

The total number of anti bonding molecular orbitals, formed from 2s and 2p atomic orbitals in a diatomic molecule is .

Answer

4

Solution

Each pair of combining atomic orbitals gives one bonding and one antibonding MO:

From 2s: *2s ⇒ 1

From 2p: *2pz, *2px, *2py ⇒ 3

∴ Total antibonding MOs = 1 + 3 = 4

Answer: 4