Question

how can you determine whether or not sp mixing occurs in a heteroniclear diatomic molecule? what do i need to look for? will rate thanks

Answer 1

Answer:

As we know the sp hybridization occurs due to the mixing of sigma and pi orbital’s or mixing of s orbital and p-orbital. In periodic table when we move from left to right the energy gap between s orbital and p-orbital become larger due to effective nuclear charge increases from left to right in periodic table. It happens due to the crossover between the orbital’s energies occurs between O₂ and N₂. CO (heteronuclear) having 14 number of electrons which is isoelectronic with N₂. The molecular diagram of CO is asymmetrical but has same mixing affects similar as N₂. While NO has smaller mixing affects in between sigma and pi and their molecular orbital diagram are similar to O₂ (due to the electronegativity difference between nitrogen and oxygen).