- All atoms that are a part of the delocalized system must be in a plane or be
nearly planar.
- 2,3-Di-tert-butyl-1,3-butadiene behaves like a nonconjugated dienes because
the bulky tert-butyl groups twist the structure and prevent the double bonds from
lying in the same plane ⇒ the p orbitals at C2 and C3 do not overlap and
delocalization (and therefore resonance) is prevented.
C C
CH 2
H 2 C C(CH^3 )^3
(H 3 C) 3 C
- The energy of the actual molecule is lower than the energy that might be
estimated for any contributing structure.
- Structures 4 and 5 resembles 1° carbocations and yet the allyl cation is more
stable than a 2° carbocation ⇒ resonance stabilization.
CH 2 CH CH+ 2 CH+ 2 CH CH 2
(^4 5)
or
Resonance structures
for benzene
Representation
of hybrid
- Equivalent resonance structures make equal contributions to the hybrid, and
a system described by them has a large resonance stabilization. - For nonequivalent resonance structures, the more stable a structure is the
greater is its contribution to the hybrid.
- Structures that are not equivalent do not make equal contributions.
- Cation A is a hybrid of structures 6 and 7.
i) Structure 6 makes greater contribution than 7 because 6 is a more stable 3°
carbocation while 7 is a 1° cation.