The bond order of a molecule is determined by the number of bonding electrons minus the number of antibonding electrons, divided by 2. For carbon monoxide CO , the electronic configuration can be represented as:C: 1s 2s 2pO: 1s 2s 2pWhen CO forms, the atomic orbitals of carbon and oxygen combine to form molecular orbitals. The molecular orbital configuration for CO is: 1s * 1s 2s * 2s 2p 2p In this configuration, there are 10 bonding electrons 2 in 1s , 2 in 2s , 4 in 2p , and 2 in 2p and 4 antibonding electrons 2 in * 1s and 2 in * 2s . Using the bond order formula:Bond order = 10 - 4 / 2 = 6 / 2 = 3The bond order of CO is 3, which indicates a triple bond between the carbon and oxygen atoms.The bond length of a molecule is the distance between the nuclei of the two bonded atoms. In general, as the bond order increases, the bond length decreases. For CO, the bond length is approximately 1.128 angstroms .