Resonance in acids

[Jocelyn Chin 1K]

Hi! Question 13 in focus 6 askss "6.13 Draw the Lewis structure of boric acid,
. (a) Is resonance important for its description? " Can someone please explain how acidity and resonance are related because I don't quite understand the book explanation which says "no. b(oh)3 is a weak acid because it does not have a conjugate system to delocalize the electrons on the oxygen to weaken the O-H bond." Any help is appreciated!! Thank you!

[Nataly Antonova 1B]

Acidity and resonance are related in a way where the more electronegative the non-metal anion is in the acid, the better it will delocalize electrons by pulling on them, making it easier for the H+ to leave. This will make the molecule more stable in the end and it essentially implies that those compounds will give off H+ more easily than those that do not have resonance. Boron has a low electronegativity, so as the book stated, it won't delocalize electrons.

Hope this helped a bit! :)

[grace salvestrin 1J]

just to add on a little^, when there's resonance, the electrons are delocalized over the whole molecule and so the resulting anion is more stable because of this delocalization. because b(oh)3 does not have resonance, it's conjugate is less stable compared to if it did have resonance and delocalized bonds.