Q.Draw the two resonance (canonical) structures of the acetate ion, CH3COO(-), and state what they predict about the two carbon-oxygen bond lengths in the ion.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →The acetate ion, , can be drawn with two different, but equally valid, Lewis structures. In the first, the carbon is doubly bonded to one oxygen atom (call it ) and singly bonded to the other (), which then carries the full negative charge: . In the second structure, the double bond and the negative charge simply swap oxygen atoms: . These two structures differ only in the placement of electrons (the position of the C=O pi bond and the negative charge), not in the position of any atom, so they are valid resonance (canonical) structures of the same ion, and since neither carbon-oxygen bond is intrinsically favoured over the other, the two structures are energetically identical and contribute equally to the real structure. …
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