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MO Theory: Bond Order definitions

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  • Bond Order
    Indicates the number of chemical bonds between a pair of atoms, affecting molecular stability and bond strength.
  • Molecular Orbital Diagram
    A visual representation used to distribute electrons into bonding and antibonding orbitals to determine bond order.
  • Bonding Electrons
    Electrons located in molecular bonding orbitals that contribute to bond formation.
  • Antibonding Electrons
    Electrons located in antibonding molecular orbitals that oppose bond formation.
  • Bond Strength
    The measure of a bond's stability and resistance to breaking, increasing with higher bond order.
  • Bond Length
    The distance between two bonded atoms, inversely related to bond strength.
  • Lewis Structure
    A diagram showing the arrangement of electrons in a molecule, used to infer bond order visually.
  • Single Bond
    A bond involving one pair of shared electrons, corresponding to a bond order of one.
  • Double Bond
    A bond involving two pairs of shared electrons, corresponding to a bond order of two.
  • Triple Bond
    A bond involving three pairs of shared electrons, corresponding to a bond order of three.
  • Stability
    The likelihood of a molecule to exist without decomposing, related to bond order.
  • Chemical Bonds
    Connections between atoms in a molecule, quantified by bond order.