# Which of the following is true about ozone?

## A) The molecule exists with localized bonds, namely one double bond and one single bond. B) The formal charge on the outermost oxygen atoms are $0$ and $- 1$, respectively. C) The molecule oscillates rapidly between two localized resonance structures. D) Both $\text{O"-"O}$ bonds are equivalent, $1.5$-bonds.

Jul 9, 2017

If I chose only one answer, I would choose $D$, but I would actually say that a combination of $C$ and $D$ would be the most correct.

Basically, the actual structure of ${\text{O}}_{3}$ is a combination of the two resonance structures that describe it, having two equivalent $\text{O"stackrel("- - -")(bar(" "))"O}$ bonds.

The most correct answer here thus treats both bonds as equivalent, since both resonance structures exist at the same time, but the electrons in the $\pi$ bond can be said to resonate (or be delocalized) between the two $\text{O"-"O}$ bonds.

The electrons in the structure are actually spread throughout the structure, so that both bonds are the same length: the length in between that of a double and a single bond, or a bond order of $1.5$.

To be specific, accepting $C$ as an answer would imply $D$ as the conclusion, so if $C$ were lumped into $D$, then the result would be the most correct answer.

But if I chose only one answer, it would be $D$.