How many antibonding orbitals are in nitrogen gas, N_2N2?

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 http://heep-server.carleton.ca.](http://http-server.carleton.ca/~rburk/chem1000/on_line_tuts/orbitals/mos2.h8.jpg)

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