Question

draw the molecular orbital (mo) electron diagram for the ne₂ molecule. be sure your diagram contains all of the electrons in the molecule, including any core electrons.

Explanation:

Step1: Determine number of electrons

Neon has 10 electrons per atom. In $Ne_2$, there are 20 electrons in total.

Step2: Fill molecular orbitals

We start filling the molecular orbitals from the lowest - energy ones. The order of filling is $\sigma_{1s},\sigma_{1s}^*,\sigma_{2s},\sigma_{2s}^*,\sigma_{2p_z},\pi_{2p_x}=\pi_{2p_y},\pi_{2p_x}^*=\pi_{2p_y}^*,\sigma_{2p_z}^*$.
We fill the orbitals with 2 electrons per orbital (spin - paired) following the Pauli - exclusion principle and Hund's rule.

Step3: Complete the diagram

After filling all 20 electrons, we have filled all bonding and antibonding orbitals in pairs.

Answer:

A complete molecular orbital diagram for $Ne_2$ would have the following orbitals filled in order of increasing energy: $\sigma_{1s}$ with 2 electrons, $\sigma_{1s}^*$ with 2 electrons, $\sigma_{2s}$ with 2 electrons, $\sigma_{2s}^*$ with 2 electrons, $\sigma_{2p_z}$ with 2 electrons, $\pi_{2p_x}$ with 2 electrons, $\pi_{2p_y}$ with 2 electrons, $\pi_{2p_x}^*$ with 2 electrons, $\pi_{2p_y}^*$ with 2 electrons, $\sigma_{2p_z}^*$ with 2 electrons. Each orbital is represented by a box, and electrons are represented by arrows (spin - up and spin - down for paired electrons).