The bond order—bond length relationship

Abstract

Abstract The difference in length between two bond orders was reported by Pauling to be essentially the same, regardless of the atoms that make up the bond. To a first approximation these differences hold not only for bond orders 1, 2 and 3 but also for six membered aromatic rings containing all carbon, carbon‐nitrogen, nitrogen‐nitrogen, carbon‐phosphorous, carbon‐arsenic, and carbon‐antimony bonds. An equation was developed (based upon these differences) that relates bond order and bond length. The output of this equation was compared with those of Gordy and Pauling. Our equation as well as the Gordy equation (with revised constants) return a bond length of 1.4 Å for bond order 1.67 which is consistent with theory. (This bond order was not used in developing either the equation or the revised Gordy constants.)