A mixture of sulfuric acid and nitric acid will produce small quantities of the nitronium ion (NO2 ): The nitronium ion has a central nitrogen atom with a positive charge double bonded to two oxygen atoms on both sides. Each oxygen atom carries two lone pairs of electrons. Does the nitronium ion have any significant resonance structures

A mixture of sulfuric acid and nitric acid will produce small quantities of the nitronium ion (NO2 ): The nitronium ion has a central nitrogen atom with a positive charge double bonded to two oxygen atoms on both sides. Each oxygen atom carries two lone pairs of electrons. Does the nitronium ion have any significant resonance structures?

Explanation:

The structure of nitronium ion is shown below:

Any molecule to exhibit resonance, it should have alternating double bonds.

Resonance is the phenomenon in which the structure of a molecule can be represented in two or more forms and each form is called canonical form.

The canonical forms do not differ in the position of atoms and they differ only in the position of double bonds.

For the given molecule, there are no alternating double bonds.

Hence, nitronium ion does not exhibit any significant resonance structures.