Question

How important is the resonance structure shown here to the overall structure of carbon dioxide?

Answer 1

1. Resonance structures are a better description of a Lewis dot structure .

2. Best resonance structure is the one with the least formal charge.

EXPLAINATION OF RASONANCE STRUCTURE OF CARBON DIOXIDE

1.Carbon dioxide has three resonance structures .

2. The CO2 molecule has a total of 16 valence electrons ,

  1C = 4 electrons

  2O= 12 electrons

three resonance structures for  CO2

1. The atoms in all three resonance structures have full octets;

 structure 1 will be more stable because it has no separation of charge.

2. Structures 2 and 3 show charge separation caused by the presence of formal charges on both oxygen atoms.