[cooltales]

Hi all,

I have a few questions here.

1)Are there any non-bonding MOs in N₂
  I saw from one of the Nitrogen MO diagrams posted that there is none. How do you tell if its bonding or not?

2)Electrons which are lone pairs occupy non-bonding MOs, do you see any evidence of lone pairs in N₂?

3)VSEPR predicts two lone pairs in N₂. If you were forced to identify two lone pairs in N2 based on its MO diagram, which two pair of electrons, when considered together, would you select? Explain your choice.

Thanks alot!

[steak]

N2 =   2 N's triple bonded to each other with a linear molecular geometry.  Both atoms are trying to follow the octet rule.  Draw the Lewis structure, then put the nonbonding electrons as far from each other as possible. 

[cooltales]

Hi steak, thank you for the reply. I know that the Lewis structure for N₂
looks like this,

:N≡N:

but what I would like to know is in which molecular orbital can I say that the lone pair lie, that is ( σ_2s / σ* _2s / π_2p or σ_2p ) ?

[nj_bartel]

they'd lie in an sp orbital, wouldn't they?

[cooltales]

I've the Molecular Orbital Diagram here. Just need help to find out which one will most likely be the one with lone pairs