Question

Calculate the bond order of $O_{\mathit{2}}^{\mathit{+}}$

Answer 1

Calculation of bond order of $O_{\mathit{2}}^{\mathit{+}}$

Step 1: Calculating the total number of electrons in $O_{\mathit{2}}^{\mathit{+}}$
The number of electrons in Oxygen(8) = 8
The number of electrons in ${\mathrm{O}}_2$ = 16
The number of electrons in $O_{\mathit{2}}^{\mathit{+}}$= 15

Step 2: Determining the electronic configuration of $O_{\mathit{2}}^{\mathit{+}}$
${\left[\mathrm{\sigma }\right(1\mathrm{s}\left)\right]}^2{\left[{\mathrm{\sigma }}^{\ast }\right(1\mathrm{s}\left)\right]}^2{\left[\mathrm{\sigma }\right(2\mathrm{s}\left)\right]}^2{\left[{\mathrm{\sigma }}^{\ast }\right(2\mathrm{s}\left)\right]}^2{\left[\mathrm{\sigma }\right(1\mathrm{pz}\left)\right]}^2{\left[\mathrm{\pi }\right(2\mathrm{px}\left)\right]}^2{\left[\mathrm{\pi }\right(2\mathrm{py}\left)\right]}^2{\left[{\mathrm{\pi }}^{\ast }\right(2\mathrm{px}\left)\right]}^1$
The number of bonding electrons = 10

The number of anti-bonding electrons = 5

Step 3: Calculating the bond order
Bond order = $\frac{\mathrm{Number}\mathrm{of}\mathrm{electrons}\mathrm{in}\mathrm{bonding}-\mathrm{Number}\mathrm{of}\mathrm{electrons}\mathrm{in}\mathrm{antibonding}}{2}$
Bond order = $\frac{10-5}{2}$
Bond order = $\frac{5}{2}$
Bond order = 2.5

Hence, the bond order for $O_{\mathit{2}}^{\mathit{+}}$ is 2.5.