Ozone Lewis Structure

[DrHJ]

I am wondering why one of the ozone;s lewis structure is not like having two double bonds around the central Oxygen.

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[ppaa]

So O3 has 18 valence electrons, if you put two double bonds, the outside two Os will have 6 valence e (with the lone pairs) but the central O would have 4 (which is 2 less than it should) and would give it a 2+ charge....and the overall charge should equal 0. I think my explanation is right but i'm not 100% sure.

 

[DAT Destroyer]

I am wondering why one of the ozone;s lewis structure is not like having two double bonds around the central Oxygen.

Putting a pair of double bonds on the central O would be incorrect for a few reasons. 1. Ozone needs 18 valence electrons, the double bonded structure you suggest has 16 2. An O such as the one you suggest would cause that central atom to have a +2 charge, and that is wrong because ozone is neutral, written as O3. The final reason is #3. This is based on theory. Ozone has a SINGLE bond distance. This is only explained by valence bond theory if a resonance structure is drawn. If we did attempt to draw the structure that you suggest, only a single bond length would be present, and clearly that is wrong. I hope this helps.

Dr. Romano

 

[DrHJ]

Putting a pair of double bonds on the central O would be incorrect for a few reasons. 1. Ozone needs 18 valence electrons, the double bonded structure you suggest has 16 2. An O such as the one you suggest would cause that central atom to have a +2 charge, and that is wrong because ozone is neutral, written as O3. The final reason is #3. This is based on theory. Ozone has a SINGLE bond distance. This is only explained by valence bond theory if a resonance structure is drawn. If we did attempt to draw the structure that you suggest, only a single bond length would be present, and clearly that is wrong. I hope this helps.

Dr. Romano

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation.