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Molecular Orbital Diagram

So in the picture above, see that there is an Atom A and Atom B and they combine. Notice that Atom A is higher in energy than Atom B (as indicated by how the 2s and 2p lines are drawn higher). Suppose I say that this is the diagram for NO. How would I tell which atom and which is O? What determines which atom has higher energy in the orbitals?

Thanks.

  • Welcome Pallas to Chemistry Stack Exchange. Generally the more electronegative atom will be lower in energy. So in your example atom A would be nitrogen and atom B would be oxygen. – Nanoputian Nov 16 '15 at 20:39
  • Think about ionisation energies as well. A higher IE must mean that the AOs are lower in energy (since it requires more energy to remove electrons). – orthocresol Nov 16 '15 at 21:14

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