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During the homolytic bond cleavage of ethane, what type of arrows should be used to represent the movement of electrons?

a) Solid arrows (→)
b) Dashed arrows (⇢)
c) Curved arrows (↪)
d) Bidirectional arrows (⇄)

User Emerion
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

Half-headed curvy arrows represent the movement of single electrons during the homolytic cleavage of ethane, leading to the formation of free radicals.

Step-by-step explanation:

During the homolytic bond cleavage of ethane, the movement of electrons should be represented by half-headed curvy arrows, also referred to as fishhook arrows. These arrows indicate the movement of a single electron, as opposed to the regular curved arrows, which represent the movement of an electron pair. In the case of ethane's homolytic cleavage, each carbon atom will end up with one electron from the shared pair, forming two free radicals.

User Sebastian Ott
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