NEETChemistryChemical Bonding and Molecular Structure
Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled as Reason (R). Assertion (A): The molecule Ne ₂ does not exist. Reason (R): In the molecular orbital diagram of Ne ₂ , the number of antibonding electrons is greater than the number of bonding electrons. In the light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:
Options
- ABoth (A) and (R) are correct and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
- BBoth (A) and (R) are correct but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
- C(A) is correct but (R) is not correct
- D(A) is not correct but (R) is correct
Correct answer
C. (A) is correct but (R) is not correct
Step-by-step solution
Assertion (A) is correct because the Ne ₂ molecule has a bond order of zero, indicating that no chemical bond is formed and the molecule does not exist. Reason (R) is incorrect. A neon atom has 10 electrons, so the hypothetical Ne ₂ molecule would have 20 electrons. Its molecular orbital configuration is 1s^2 ^ * 1s^2 2s^2 ^ * 2s^2 2p_z^2 ( 2p_x^2 = 2p_y^2) ( ^ * 2p_x^2 = ^ * 2p_y^2) ^ * 2p_z^2 . The number of bonding electrons ( N_b ) is 10 and the number of antibonding electrons ( N_a ) is 10. Since N_b = N_a , t