You have a mixture of the following three molecules in diethyl ether. Add an aqueous solution of pH 8, separate the two layers. Add an aqueous solution of pH 8 to the diethyl ether solution. Glucose is the most stable of the following three isomeric sugars. Use drawings of chair conformations to explain this fact and predict which of the other two molecules is least stable.
Resonance structures are only possible in specific situations.
First, second row elements can never exceed an octet of electrons. Fourth, resonance structures don t have to be stable to be accurate. Following are accurate resonance structures for two molecules. The pKa of the ammonium ion is critical to solving this problem. The following examples should help.