Carbon suboxide Lewis structure, 463

Carbon suboxide, the third carbon oxide, is a linear molecule with the Lewis structure... 

Carbon forms two common oxides, CO and CO2. It also forms a third (very uncommon) oxide, carbon suboxide, C3O2, which is linear. The structure has terminal oxygen atoms on both ends. Write the Lewis formula for C3O2. 

When carbon is burned in a sufficiency of air or oxygen, CO2 results but if the supply of oxygen is limited, highly toxic CO is the major combustion product. Other, higher oxides of carbon can be formed by indirect methods for example, C3O2, carbon suboxide (tricarbon dioxide), results from the dehydration of malonic acid, a three-carbon dicarboxylic acid. The Lewis structures of these three oxides indicate the presence of multiple bonds ... 

Write a plausible Lewis structure for C3O2, a substance known as carbon suboxide. 

Carbon suboxide has the formula C3O2. The carbon-to-carbon bond lengths are 130 pm and carbon-to-oxygen, 120 pm. Propose a plausible Lewis structure to account for these bond lengths, and predict the shape of the molecule. 

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