How many antibonding orbitals are in nitrogen gas, #N_2#?

1 Answer
Ernest Z. · Media Owl
Apr 14, 2014

There are five antibonding orbitals in a molecule of N₂.

The lowest energy orbital is the #σ^✳#(1s) orbital. This is not a valence-shell orbital.

The lowest energy antibonding orbital in the valence shell is the #σ^✳#(2s) orbital. Then come two degenerate and unfilled #π^✳#(2p) orbitals. Finally, the highest energy orbital is the #σ^✳#(2p) orbital.

Energy orbitals of nitrogen gas from heep-server.carleton.ca.

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