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How do we represent the reaction of Grignard reagents with carbon dioxide stoichiometrically?

Answer 1

How else but by conserving mass and charge...?

I am not quite sure what you are after, but I will make a stab at it. We represent the carbon dioxide molecule conventionally....

#:stackrel(ddot)O=C=stackrel(ddot)O:#

From left to right there are #6#, #4#, and #6# #"VALENCE ELECTRONS"# associated with each atom so that each atom (with the 2 inner core electrons, formally the #1s^2# set) has the precise number of electrons to balance the nuclear charge: #Z=8_"oxygen";Z=6_"carbon"#...

WE could write a resonance structure such as #""^(-)O-C-=O^(+)#...experimentally, of course, the CARBON is the electrophilic centre, and nucleophilic reagents, such as Grignards, react at the electropositive carbon centre....

#R^(-)""^(+)MgX+CO_2 rarrR-C(=O)-O^(-)""^(+)MgX#

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.