Illustrated Glossary of Organic Chemistry
Kekule
structure
:
A
Lewis structure
in which
bonded
electron pairs in
covalent bonds
are shown as lines. The most famous Kekule
structures
are what we would now call the two most
significant
resonance contributors
of
benzene
. A Kekule
structure
should not include
lone pairs
or
formal charges
, because the electron was not discovered until well after Kekule starting using this notation. Adding
lone pairs
converts a Kekule
structure
into a
Lewis structure
.
The Kekule
structures
for
benzene
A typical Kekule
structure
.
Does not include
lone pairs
.
Corresponding
Lewis structure
.
Lone pairs
shown.
Related terms:
Resonance contributor
,
resonance hybrid
,
Lewis dot structure
,
bond-line structure
,
sawhorse projection
,
Newman projection
,
Fischer projection
,
Haworth projection
,
zigzag structure
,
Natta projection
,
formal charge
,
space-filling model
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