Which one of the following species does not exist under normal conditions ?

Which one of the following species does not exist under normal conditions ?
  1. $\mathrm{Be}_2^{+}$
  2. $\mathrm{Be}_2$
  3. $\mathrm{B}_2$
  4. $\mathrm{Li}_2$

Solution

Key Idea Molecules with zero bond order, do not exist. (a) $\mathrm{Be}_2^{+}(4+4-1=7)=$ $\begin{aligned} & \sigma 1 \mathrm{~s}^2, \sigma 1 \mathrm{~s}^2, \sigma 2 \mathrm{~s}^2, \sigma 2 \mathrm{~s}^1 \\ & \mathrm{BO}=\frac{4-3}{2}=0.5 \end{aligned}$ (b) $\mathrm{Be}_2(4+4=8)=\sigma 1 \mathrm{~s}^2, \sigma 1 \mathrm{~s}^2, \sigma 2 \mathrm{~s}^2, \sigma 2 \mathrm{~s}^2$ $\mathrm{BO}=\frac{4-4}{2}=0$ (c) $\mathrm{B}_2(5+5=10)$ $\begin{gathered} =\sigma 1 \mathrm{~s}^2, \sigma 1 \mathrm{~s}^2, \sigma 2 \mathrm{~s}^2, \sigma 2 \mathrm{~s}^2, \pi 2 p_{\mathrm{x}}^1 \approx \pi 2 \mathrm{p}_{\mathrm{y}}^1 \\ \mathrm{BO}=\frac{6-4}{2}=1 \end{gathered}$ (d) $\begin{aligned} & \operatorname{Li}_2(3+3=6) \\ & =\sigma 1 \mathrm{~s}^2, \sigma 1 \mathrm{~s}^2, \sigma 2 \mathrm{~s}^2 \\ & =\frac{4-2}{2}=1 \end{aligned}$ $\mathrm{BO}=\frac{4-2}{2}=1$ Thus, $\mathrm{Be}_2$ does not exist under normal conditions.

Asked in: NEET 2010 (Screening)

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