Determine the bond order of the no ion. So here, remember we're going to set up our molecular orbital diagram and it'll be based on the less electronegative element. Nitrogen is less electronegative than oxygen. So we're going to use the molecular orbital diagram for nitrogen to set that up. We're going to have here Σ2S, Σ*2S. Then we're going to have π2P and then we're going to have here Σ2P.

Then we're going to have here π*2P and then finally we're going to have up here Σ*2P. Now if we take a look here, nitrogen is in Group 5A, so it has five valence electrons. Oxygen is in Group 6A, so it has six valence electrons. And then -1 means we've gained an additional electron, so that's going to be another electron on top. So this comes out to 12 valence electrons.

So we start filling this in. So it'd be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. So we've filled this in. And remember that the bond order formula, so bond order we're going to abbreviate to Bo, equals half of your bonding electrons minus your anti bonding electrons. So here we'd say half of. So you're bonding. Electrons are 2, 4, 6, 8, so we have 8 minus. Your antibonding are the ones with the stars, so that's going to be 2, 4 antibonding, so that's 8 - 4, which is four. 4 * 1/2 is equal to two. So the bond order here for this particular molecule would be two.