Question

Oxaloacetic acid, an important intermediate in food metabolism, has the formulaand contains threebonds and twobonds. Propose two possible structures.

Short answer

Two possible structures of oxaloacetic acid

Step-by-step solution

Oxaloacetic acid

The molecular formula of oxaloacetic acid is .The structure of oxaloacetic aid is represented as follows:

Oxaloacetic acid

Oxaloacetic acid, has threebonds and twobonds

Possibilities

As given oxaloacetic acid should have three C=O bonds and two O-H bonds these can be drawn by keeping one OH group in the last carbon and one in the second carbon where there is no C=O bond.

Trial and error method

By using the trial and error method to determine how the atoms ofcan be arranged together. Two possible structures of with three bonds and two bonds are shown:

Two possible structures of oxaloacetic acid