Custom Search Lewis Dot of the Carbonate Ion CO32- Metal carbonates generally decompose on heating, liberating carbon dioxide and leaving behind an oxide of the metal. Since carbon is located in period 2 it does not have access to the d sublevel and must adhere to the octet rule. There are three different possible resonance structures from carbonate. Each carbon oxygen bond can be thought of as 1.333 bonds. the average of a double bond and 2 single bonds. 4 bonds/3 structures.
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