Question

In a carbonyl oxygen, why do we say that the electrons are trigonal planar?

Answer 1

Because each oxygen atom in the molecule has THE TWO NON-BONDING ELECTRON pairs............

Explanation:

And for `RC(=O)OH`, the carbonyl oxygen is `sp^2` hybridized, and `OH` is `sp^3` hybridized. Because each oxygen atom is formally neutral we conceive that there are 8 electrons around each oxygen nucleus. Two of these electrons are inner core. The remaining 6 are valence shell, and determine the geometry about oxygen.