Resonance Structure Confusion
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Resonance Structure Confusion
There was a problem on Sapling that asked if all three structures were resonance structures. Why are they not considered this?
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Re: Resonance Structure Confusion
They are not considered resonance structures because the structures and number of single, double, and triple bonds were changing for each one, and the electrons were not delocalized between the atoms.
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Re: Resonance Structure Confusion
This is because the structures have different atom connectivities.
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Re: Resonance Structure Confusion
I believe the question in the Sapling you were referring to was #17. These are not resonance structures of each other because the arrangement of the bonds is not the same between structures. Resonance structures by definition are "bonding in certain molecules or ions by the combination of several contributing structures into a resonance hybrid", and the bond strengths are actually the average between the different resonance structures. However, as you can see the shape of the molecules are different meaning they have very different bond strengths/lengths.
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Re: Resonance Structure Confusion
An example of a resonance structure would be O3 because there is one single bond between an O and another O and one double bond between an O and another O. The electrons are delocalized and are shared in the molecule, and the single and double bonds could rotate between atoms and keep the same structure and follow the octet rule.
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