Question

Take NA as the number of Anti-bonding molecular orbitals and NB as the number of Bonding molecular orbitals. The molecule is stable when NA ____________ NB.

(a) is greater than

(b) is equal to

(c) is less than

(d) is greater than or equal to

The question was posed to me in an internship interview.

I'm obligated to ask this question of Molecular Orbital Theory topic in chapter Chemical Bonding and Molecular Structure of Chemistry – Class 11

Answer 1

The correct option is (c) is less than

For explanation: When a molecule consists both bonding molecular orbitals and anti-bonding molecular orbitals, the higher the number of bonding orbitals, the more the bonding influence and the more stable the molecule will be and vice-versa.