Question

Do you expect the bond in the N2+ ion to be stronger or weaker than the bond in the N2 molecule?

Answer 1

@Photon336

Answer 2

how would I know which mo diagram to look at?

Answer 3

it's been a while since i've done this @empty @Woodward they are great a orbital diagrams.

Answer 4

http://secure.tutorsglobe.com/CMSImages/1060_nitrogen%20molecule2.jpg

Here's the MO diagram for N2, all 3 of the bonding orbitals created by the 3 p-orbitals (2 pi and 1 sigma) are all occupied. So if we remove one electron, we decrease the bond order.

To calculate the actual bond order, we add up all the bonding and subtract off all the antibonding electrons and divide by two.

\[B.O. = \frac{bonding - antibonding}{2} \]

In this case we can see that we have 8 bonding electrons and 2 antibonding electrons, so the bond order is 3 for N2. If we remove one electron, then we have 2.5 bond order. Don't be excited by noninteger bond orders, they're fairly common.