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bond order

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formal measure of covalent bond strength: difference between the number of electron pairs in bonding and antibonding molecular orbitals

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In chemistry, bond order is a formal measure of the multiplicity of a covalent bond between two atoms. As introduced by Gerhard Herzberg, building off of work by R. S. Mulliken and Friedrich Hund, bond order is defined as the difference between the numbers of electron pairs in bonding and antibonding molecular orbitals.

Bond order gives a rough indication of the stability of a bond. Isoelectronic species have the same bond order.

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