Resonance Structures
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Useful Concepts |
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Resonance Structures: How to
get them !
The best way to "derive" resonance
structures is by learning to "push"
curly
arrows and starting from a reasonable
Lewis
structure.
Rules to remember for recognising
resonance structures:
- Atoms never move.
- You can only move
electrons in p bonds or
lone
pairs (that are in p orbitals)
- The overall charge of
the system must remain the same.
Ranking resonance structures (for 1st row
atoms, in order of importance):
- Octet rule should be
satisfied.
- Charge separation
requires energy (think electrostatics)
- Charge separation against
that predicted by electronegativity.
Here is an example. Note how the possible
resonance structures are derived
from the starting point by pushing curly arrows.

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© Dr.
Ian Hunt, Department of
Chemistry, University
of Calgary |
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