{"id":1663,"date":"2014-11-07T12:57:54","date_gmt":"2014-11-07T12:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aceorganicchem.com\/Elite\/?p=1663"},"modified":"2014-11-07T12:58:47","modified_gmt":"2014-11-07T12:58:47","slug":"trick-11-master-organic-chemistry-resonance-structures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aceorganicchem.com\/Elite\/trick-11-master-organic-chemistry-resonance-structures\/","title":{"rendered":"Trick #11: Master Organic Chemistry Resonance Structures"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Win the fight against resonance structures in organic chemistry<\/h2>\n

Resonance structures: that moving target you thought was stationary. \u00a0Nobody in your freshman chem class told you that these things don’t necessarily stay in one place.<\/p>\n

\"resonance<\/a>
A high resolution electron micrography showing electrons on the go<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Organic Chemistry resonance structures are\u00a0one of those issues that you will have to deal with for both semester I & II of organic chemistry.\u00a0 It is much better to have a solid understanding of it now, rather than have to worry about it later.\u00a0 The basic goal of resonance\u00a0structures is to show that molecules can move electrons and charges\u00a0onto different atoms on the molecule.\u00a0 This makes the molecule generally more stable because the charge is now delocalized and not \u201cforced\u201d onto an atom that does not want it.<\/p>\n

Below\u00a0are some handy rules of\u00a0resonance.\u00a0 If you learn these and think about them when tackling different resonance problems, you will be able to handle whatever is thrown at you.<\/p>\n

1) Know each atom\u2019s \u201cnatural state\u201d, see tip #8<\/a>.\u00a0 You need to recognize what each atom generally looks like, in an uncharged state.\u00a0 This will help you to construct the\u00a0Lewis Dot structure on which you will base your resonance\u00a0structures.\u00a0 Remember that halogens and hydrogens are always terminal, meaning that are at the end of the molecule and only have one bond, and therefore, they will not participate in resonance.<\/p>\n

2) Atom positions will not change.\u00a0 Once you have determined that an atom is bonded to another atom, that order will not change in a resonance\u00a0structure.\u00a0 If they do change, it is no longer a resonance structure, but is now a constitutional isomer.<\/p>\n

3) Check the structure you have created to make sure that it follows the octet rule.\u00a0 This will become much easier once you have a better handle on the \u201cnatural state\u201d of atoms.<\/p>\n

4) When two or more resonance\u00a0structures can be drawn, the one with the fewest total\u00a0charges is the most stable.\u00a0 In the example below, A is more stable than B.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Slide12\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5) When two or more resonance\u00a0structures can be drawn, the more stable has the negative charge on the more electronegative atom.\u00a0 In the example below, A is more stable than B.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Slide13\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6) \u00a0 In the end, each resonance\u00a0structure should have the same overall charge and total number of electrons (bonds + lone pairs) as when you started.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Take Home Message<\/span>:<\/strong>\u00a0 Organic chemistry resonance<\/strong>\u00a0is like telemarketers.\u00a0 They are never going to go away, so you need to learn them well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Win the fight against resonance structures in organic chemistry Resonance structures: that moving target you thought was stationary. \u00a0Nobody in your freshman chem class told you that these things don’t necessarily stay in one place.   Organic Chemistry resonance structures are\u00a0one of those issues that you will have to deal with for both semester […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4tPTC-qP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aceorganicchem.com\/Elite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aceorganicchem.com\/Elite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aceorganicchem.com\/Elite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aceorganicchem.com\/Elite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aceorganicchem.com\/Elite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1663"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.aceorganicchem.com\/Elite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1670,"href":"https:\/\/www.aceorganicchem.com\/Elite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663\/revisions\/1670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aceorganicchem.com\/Elite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aceorganicchem.com\/Elite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aceorganicchem.com\/Elite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}