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QUESTION

Which is predicted to have the shorter sulfur–oxygen bonds: a sulfite ion or a sulfate ion?

The sulfate ion should have shorter sulfur-oxygen bonds than a sulfite ion.

The sulfite ion is a hybrid of three equivalent contributing structures.

The bond orders of the ##"S-O"## bonds in any one contributor are 2, 1, and 1.

The bond orders of the ##"S-O"## bonds in the hybrid are an average of these numbers.

##BO = ##2 + 1 +1)/3 = 4/3 = 1.33

The sulfate ion is a resonance hybrid of six equivalent contributing structures.

The bond orders of the ##"S-O"## bonds in any one contributor are 2, 2, 1, and 1.

The bond orders of the ##"S-O"## bonds in the hybrid are an average of these numbers.

##BO = (2 + 2 + 1 +1)/4 = 6/4 = 1.50##

The greater the bond order, the shorter the bond length.

The ##"S-O"## bond order is greater in the sulfate ion, so sulfate ions should have shorter ##"S-O"## bonds.

Experiments confirm this prediction.

The measured ##"S-O"## bond lengths are 149 pm in sulfate ion and 151 pm in sulfite ion.

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