The ground state electron configuration of nitrogen (N) is 1s² 2s² 2p³. Since we are considering nitrogen in the molecule N2, we need to combine the electron configurations of two nitrogen atoms.
To form a nitrogen molecule (N2), one electron from each nitrogen atom is promoted from the 2s orbital to the 2p orbital, resulting in the electron configuration: σ(2s)² σ*(2s)² π(2p)⁴.
The bond order is calculated by taking the difference between the number of bonding electrons and the number of antibonding electrons, divided by 2. In this case, there are 10 bonding electrons (2 from each σ bond and 2 from each π bond) and 2 antibonding electrons (from the σ* orbital). Therefore, the bond order of N2 is:
Bond Order = (Number of bonding electrons - Number of antibonding electrons) / 2 = (10 - 2) / 2 = 8 / 2 = 4
Thus, the bond order of N2 is 4, indicating a triple bond between the nitrogen atoms.