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My teacher has told us that ClO2 does not dimerise due to delocalization of unpaired electron, but didn't elaborate on this. I didn't understand it.

Wallflower06
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    The same question could be asked about the molecule NO. The reason may be that dimerization would produce a non-bonding molecular orbital. So Nature is reluctant to produce non-bonding orbitals. – Maurice Aug 09 '23 at 12:26
  • The unpaired electron goes in a non-bonding orbital - as above. In the single molecule this weakens the bond - i.e. the 3 electron bond is weaker than the C=O bond. As mentioned above - as it's non-bonding - and therefore higher energy - presumably the dimer would be rather unstable. – HillInHarwich Aug 09 '23 at 12:39
  • All radicals dimerise, or even polymerise, to some extent, at least in low temperature. The resulting bonds may be so weak the equilibrium of thermal decomposition is far to the right at room temp., though. – Mithoron Aug 09 '23 at 13:31
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    @Maurice $\ce{NO}$ foes dimerize when condensed, and this plays some roke in its relatively high boilimg point for a diamotic molecule. – Oscar Lanzi Aug 09 '23 at 13:46
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    @Oscar Lanzi. Yes. NO dimerizes at rather low temperatures, well under $0$°C. I was speaking of the chemistry at usual temperatures, above $0$°C. I agree I should have mentioned it previously. – Maurice Aug 09 '23 at 14:28
  • @Wallflower06 See my comments in https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/81761/why-the-tendency-of-clo3-to-form-dimer-is-high – Nilay Ghosh Aug 09 '23 at 17:15
  • Thanks to all of you ! – Wallflower06 Aug 26 '23 at 16:27

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