A student writes the Lewis electron-dot formula for the carbonate anion, CO32-, as
a. Does this Lewis formula obey the octet rule? Explain. What are the formal charges on the atoms? Try describing the bonding for this formula in valence bond terms. Do you have any difficulty doing this?
b. Does this Lewis formula give a reasonable description of the electron structure, or is there a better one? If there is a better Lewis formula, write it down and explain why it is better.
c. The same student writes the following resonance description for CO2: Is there something wrong with this description? (What would you predict as the geometries of these formulas?)
e. Can you write a Lewis formula that gives an even better description of CO2? Explain your answer.