Resonance form stability

The acidity of acetone and other compounds with C=0 bonds is due to the fact that the conjugate base resulting from loss of H+ is stabilized by resonance. In addition, one of the resonance forms stabilizes the negative charge by placing it on an electronegative oxygen atom. 

A relatively strong contribution of this resonance form stabilizes the protonated species... 

The term resonance has also been applied in valency. The general idea of resonance in this sense is that if the valency electrons in a molecule are capable of several alternative arrangements which differ by only a small amount in energy and have no geometrical differences, then the actual arrangement will be a hybrid of these various alternatives. See mesomerism. The stabilization of such a system over the non-resonating forms is the resonance energy. 

It IS good chemical practice to represent molecules by their most stable Lewis structure The ability to write alternative resonance forms and to compare their relative stabilities however can provide insight into both molecular structure and chemical behavior This will become particularly apparent m the last two thirds of this text where the resonance concept will be used regularly... 

Nitromethane is stabilized by electron delocalization more than methyl nitrite is The two most stable resonance forms of nitromethane are equivalent to each other... 

The electrophile in a Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction is an acyl cation (also referred to as an acylium ion) Acyl cations are stabilized by resonance The acyl cation derived from propanoyl chloride is represented by the two resonance forms... 

One way to assess the relative stabilities of these various intermediates is to exam me electron delocalization m them using a resonance description The cyclohexadienyl cations leading to o and p mtrotoluene have tertiary carbocation character Each has a resonance form m which the positive charge resides on the carbon that bears the methyl group... 

To involve allylic resonance in stabilizing the arenium ion formed during attack at C 2 the benzenoid character of the other ring is sacrificed... 

A/-Nitroso amines are stabilized by electron delocalization Write tn tw most stable resonance forms of A/-nitrosodimethylamine... 

This involves a more uniform distribution of charge because of the identical substituents and thus lacks the stabilizing effect of the polar resonance form. The activation energy for this mode of addition is greater than that for alternation, at least when X and Y are sufficiently different. 

The traits isomer (129) underwent a facile isomerization in methanol to give an 88 12 mixture of the c/i and isomers, showing that the difference in the free energy between them is of the order of 1.2 kcal/mole. The stability of the cw isomer may be ascribed to the continuous overlap between the electron pair on the nitrogen atom and the phenyl group, as shown in the resonance form (132). 

In other words, resonance leads to stability. Generally speaking, the larger the number of resonance forms, the more stable a substance is because electrons ate spread out over a larger part of the molecule and are closer to more nuclei. We ll see in Chapter IS, for instance, that a benzene ring is more stable because of resonance than might otherwise be expected. 

Similar arguments can be used to predict the relative stabilities of the cyclo-heptatrienyl cation, radical, and anion. Removal of a hydrogen from cyclohepta-triene can generate the six-77-electron cation, the seven-77-electron radical, 01 the eight-77-elec iron anion (Figure 15.6). All three species again have numerous resonance forms, but HiickeTs rule predicts that only the six-7r-electron cyclohep-tatrienyl cation should be aromatic. The seven-77-electron cycloheptatrienyl radical and the eight-77-electron anion are antiaromatic. 

Carbonyl compounds are more acidic than alkanes for the same reason that carboxylic acids are more acidic than alcohols (Section 20.2). In both cases, the anions are stabilized by resonance. Enolate ions differ from carboxylate ions, however, in that their two resonance forms are not equivalent—the form with the negative charge on oxygen is lower in energy than the form with the charge on carbon. Nevertheless, the principle behind resonance stabilization is the same in both cases. 

In contrast with amines, amides (RCONH ) are nonbasic. Amides don t undergo substantial protonation by aqueous acids, and they are poor nucleophiles. The main reason for this difference in basicity between amines and amides is that an amide is stabilized by delocalization of the nitrogen lone-pair electrons through orbital overlap with the carbonyl group. In resonance terms, amides are more stable and less reactive than amines because they are hybrids of two resonance forms. This amide resonance stabilization is lost when the nitrogen atom is protonated, so protonation is disfavored. Electrostatic potential maps show clearly the decreased electron density on the amide nitrogen. 

As noted previously, arylamines are generally less basic than alkylamines. Anilinium ion has pKa = 4.63, for instance, whereas methylammonium ion has pfCa = 10.64. Arylamines are less basic than alkylamines because the nitrogen lone-pair electrons are delocalized by interaction with the aromatic ring tt electron system and are less available for bonding to H+. In resonance terms, aryl-amines are stabilized relative to alkylamines because of their five resonance forms. 

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