How would you draw all of the resonance structures for nitrate?
1 Answer
By exchanging the electron pairs around the oxygens.
Explanation:
The nitrate ion has three resonance contributors.
Nitrate anion possesses 3 formal charges on its atoms.
The nitrogen atom is quaternized (and thus formally positive) in all the representations.
We can consider the double-bonded oxygen to be neutral, and the other oxygens bear formal negative charges; of course, all the oxygen atoms are equivalent by resonance.
We add these 2 negative charges to the formal positive charge on nitrogen and come up with a formal negative charge for the anion, as required.
Of course, all of the