Chemistry 12th Edition

Published by McGraw-Hill Education
ISBN 10: 0078021510
ISBN 13: 978-0-07802-151-0

Chapter 10 - Chemical Bonding II - Questions & Problems - Page 459: 10.54

Answer

$B_{2}$ is more stable than $B_{2}^{+}$.

Work Step by Step

Boron molecule ($B_{2}$) contains 10 electrons. The molecular orbital configuration of $B_{2}$ molecule is as follows, $(σ_{1s})^{2},(σ^{*}_{1s})^{2}, (σ_{2s})^{2},(σ^{*}_{2s})^{2},(π_{2py})^{1}=(π_{2pz})^{1}$ ($B_{2}^{+}$) contains 9 electrons. The molecular orbital configuration of $B_{2}^{+}$ ion is as follows, $(σ_{1s})^{2},(σ^{*}_{1s})^{2}, (σ_{2s})^{2},(σ^{*}_{2s})^{2},(π_{2py})^{1}$ The bond order is 1/2(number of bonding electrons - number of antibonding electrons). Hence bond order of $B_{2}$ is 1/2(6-4)=1 Bond order of $B_{2}^{+}$ is 1/2(5-4)= 0.5 Bond order is directly proportional to stability. So $B_{2}$ is more stable than $B_{2}^{+}$.
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