Homework 3.71 [ENDORSED]

[Anna Lapuos 3C]

How do we know which structure would more likely make the dominant contribution to a resonance hybrid? Does it have to do with the structure with the lower energy?

[Miranda 1J]

In such cases you would try to find which structure has a formal charge closest to zero, indicating a more stable molecule (0 being the most stable).

[Akash_Kapoor_1L]

Remember to use the equation, Fc = V - (L + s/2), where V = the number of valence electrons, L = the number of lone electrons, s= the number of shared electrons to calculate the formal charge of each atom in the molecule!!

[Akash_Kapoor_1L]

Also, yes, the most dominant and stable resonance structure will be the one with the lowest energy, which means that it will have a formal charge closest to 0...