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Reference.org
Bond order
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<p>In <a href="/facts/Chemistry/SrNqkGVm">chemistry</a>, bond order is a formal measure of the multiplicity of a <a href="/facts/Covalent_bond/EzMLf3Pz">covalent bond</a> between two atoms. As introduced by <a href="/facts/Gerhard_Herzberg/pwYsImjY">Gerhard Herzberg</a>, 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 <a href="/facts/Bonding_molecular_orbital/1cpledcB">bonding</a> and <a href="/facts/Antibonding_molecular_orbital/9lhLNyt3">antibonding molecular orbitals</a>. </p><p>Bond order gives a rough indication of the <a href="/facts/Bond-dissociation_energy/wdDb5yHN">stability of a bond</a>. <a href="/facts/Isoelectronicity/SbzuaI05">Isoelectronic</a> species have the same bond order. </p>