Some chemical reactions proceed by the initial loss or transfer of an electron to a diatomic species. Which of the molecules N2, NO, O2, C2, F2, and CN would you expect to be stabilized by: (a) the addition of an electron to form AB- (b) the removal of an electron to form AB

a. energy is absorbed in the reaction.

if in a given reaction the energy of products is greater than the energy of reactants it means that reaction is endothermic and during the reaction, the energy is absorbed by reactants. in an endothermic reaction, the products have more stored chemical energy than the reactants. and in this reaction the reactants are more stable than products before the compounds with less energy are always more stable.

the seeing the electronic configuration we can say that the element is fluorine.

fluorine is the most electronegative element in the periodic table.

but by only seeing the configuration we cannot say about its reactivity because we don't know if its configuration after excitation or by addition of electrons.

but if not then, it is the lightest halogen and exists as a highly toxic pale yellow diatomic gas at standard conditions. as the most electronegative element, it is extremely reactive: almost all other elements, including some noble gases, form compounds with fluorine.