Diatomic Molecules

[Elizabeth Kaplan 3I]

Dr. Lavelle mentioned in Friday's lecture that HBr and HCl are diatomic molecules, but I thought diatomic molecules were molecules like Br2, O2, N2. How do we know when a molecule is diatomic then?

thank you!

[Faith Veenker 2K]

I'm pretty sure any molecule with only two atoms is a diatomic molecule (the "di" means two). A diatomic element is a diatomic molecule with two of the same type of atom (Cl2, H2, etc.).

[Anya Holbrook 1E]

Hi! Diatomic molecules are elements that form molecules consisting of two atoms bounded together. The examples you wrote are diatomic elements, not diatomic molecules like HBr.

[Inderpal Singh 2L]

A diatomic molecule is different from a diatomic element! Diatomic elements are two of the same element.

[Gian Boco 2G]

I think diatomic molecules are just molecules that involve two atoms in total while the diatomic elements allude to the elements that pretty much only exist in a homogenous diatomic arrangement such as O2 and H2.

[MMorcus2E]

Br2, O2, and N2 are examples of diatomic elements, which are basically elements that are mainly found in nature, in their most stable form, as two. Diatomic elements are a type of diatomic molecule, but I think Dr. Lavelle was referring to diatomic molecules as being literally any two elements bonded together. In context, he was saying that we have more accurate values for bond energy in diatomic molecules than we do for other types of molecules with more elements.

[Brian Nguyen 2I]

A molecule is considered diatomic so long that there are two atoms involved. O2, Br2, H2, etc are considered diatomic elements, since there are two atoms of the same element in a molecule.