Oxygen diatomic molecule, orbitals

In writing these configurations for diatomic molecules of second-row elements, we have omitted the electrons from the Is orbitals because they are not part of the valence shells of the atoms. When considering the oxygen molecule, for which the a orbital arising from the combinations of the 2pz orbitals lies lower in energy than the 7r orbitals, we find that the electron configuration is... 

Oxygen, fluorine, and man. These three molecules can be treated with the same energy diagram that we have been using for other diatomic molecules of the second-row elements. As we shall see shortly, the intervening molecules, B, C-. and N2. require additional considerations, which lead to an alteration in (he relative energies of the molecular orbitals. 

A key question is whether the diatomic molecule in its interaction with metal surfaces remains molecular or dissociates into carbon and oxygen. Broden et al. (3) predicted, by the perturbation of molecular orbitals for CO adsorbed, that only iron could dissociate CO. However, other metals in Group VIII such as nickel (A) ruthenium (5) and rhodium (6) can dissociate CO. Recently Ichikawa et al.(7) observed that disproportionation of CO to CO2 and carbon occurs on small particles of silica-supported palladium. These results show that carbon deposition phenomena may occur via either dissociation of CO on the metals used or disproportionation of CO to CO and carbon on small platinum particles. Cant and Angove (8) studied the apparent deactivation of Pt/Si02 catalyst for the oxidation of carbon monoxide and they suggested that adsorbed CO forms patches and that oxygen atoms are gradually consumed. 

The second-row elements including carbon, oxygen and nitrogen involve p atomic orbitals as well as 2s orbitals. An example of a heteronuclear diatomic molecule involving these elements is carbon monoxide, C=0. The carbon monoxide molecule has 14 electrons, and the orbitals for each atom are Is, 2s, 2p, and... 

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