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Question

What is a resonance hybrid? Give one example.


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Solution

Resonance

  • In the valence bond theory, resonance is also known as mesomerism
  • Resonance is a way of defining bonding in particular molecules or polyatomic ions by combining many contributing structures into a resonance hybrid.

Resonance Hybrid

  • A molecular structure is a combination of two structures with different pie bond electron positions.
  • As the 'average' of the contributing structures, the resonance hybrid represents the actual molecule.

Example

  • Benzene is an aromatic hydrocarbon.
  • The molecular formula of benzene is C6H6.
  • Benzene generally contains a cyclic structure in which molecules are designed in such a way that it contains alternating single and double bonds with respect to their nearby carbon atoms.
  • Each carbon atom has a hydrogen atom linked to it.
  • There are two probable benzene resonance configurations which are shown by rotating the bonds and resonance hybrid the structure which is equivalent to both structures are shown below:

Benzene show resonance due to the presence of pi bonds which take part in delocalization and gives resonating structures. This delocalization causes each carbon-carbon bond to have a bond order of 1.5, implying that they are stronger than regular C-C sigma bonds.


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