What are all the possible resonance structures for the Phosphate ion?

1 Answer
anor277
Apr 8, 2018

Well, you gots #O=P(-O^(-))_3^(3-)#....

Explanation:

And clearly, ALL the oxygen atoms are equivalent, we just have to push the electrons around. Note that most of the time in aqueous solution we deal with biphosphate ion, #O=P(OH)(-O^(-))_2^(2-)#, i.e. #HPO_4^(2-)#...

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