---
title: "Carboxylic acid and ester Template – Chemistry Diagram | MolDraw"
url: https://www.moldraw.com/templates/resonance-acid-ester/
description: "Carboxylic acid and ester template: Acetic acid and methyl acetate: the neutral form and the minor charge-separated form with C=O⁺–H or C=O⁺–CH₃ and O⁻.…"
lang: en
publisher: Scidart Academy
generated: 2026-10-28
---
[MolDraw](https://www.moldraw.com/) › [Templates](https://www.moldraw.com/templates/) › [Resonance](https://www.moldraw.com/templates/resonance/) › Carboxylic acid and ester

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# Carboxylic acid and ester template

![Carboxylic acid and ester template: Acetic acid and methyl acetate: the neutral form and the minor charge-separated form with C=O⁺–H or C=O⁺–CH₃ and O⁻.](https://www.moldraw.com/templates/resonance-acid-ester.webp)

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Acetic acid and methyl acetate: the neutral form and the minor charge-separated form with C=O⁺–H or C=O⁺–CH₃ and O⁻.

## What the template shows

- The OH or OR lone pair is shared with the C=O group
- Resonance contributors
- Acetic acid
- Neutral form (major) ↔ charge-separated form (minor)
- Methyl acetate
- The same donation from the ester oxygen
- The neutral form dominates: no charges and every atom has an octet; the charge-separated form is a minor contributor.
- This donation makes the carbonyl carbon of acids and esters less electrophilic than that of aldehydes and ketones.
- It also gives the C–O(H) bond partial double-bond character, so esters prefer a planar (s-cis, Z) conformation.
- Contributors are not in equilibrium: the real species is one hybrid of them · every part of this figure is editable

Drawn with 18 atoms, 6 arrows, 3 shapes – every one editable in MolDraw.

## Sources

- [Clayden, Greeves & Warren, Organic Chemistry, 2nd ed., OUP 2012, ch. 7](https://openlibrary.org/isbn/9780199270293) Textbook
- [Smith, March's Advanced Organic Chemistry, 8th ed., Wiley 2020](https://openlibrary.org/isbn/9781119371809) Textbook

## How to use this template

1. Press **Edit in MolDraw**. The template opens on the canvas of the free MolDraw editor.
2. Change anything: move structures, edit atoms and labels, recolour highlights or delete what you do not need.
3. Add your own structures, arrows and text next to it, or combine several templates on one page.
4. Export the drawing as PNG, SVG or PDF for slides, worksheets, theses and papers.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is the Carboxylic acid and ester template free?

You can preview the Carboxylic acid and ester template here and open and edit it in MolDraw for free. Downloading or exporting it is part of MolDraw Pro, together with the other premium templates.

### Can I edit the Carboxylic acid and ester template?

Yes. It opens as an ordinary MolDraw drawing, so every structure, arrow, label and colour can be changed, and you can add your own content around it.

### Is the chemistry checked?

Every structure is checked with RDKit and every curly arrow passes MolDraw’s electron-flow audit. The sources used are listed on this page.

### How are resonance structures shown?

Each contributor is drawn separately, joined by double-headed resonance arrows, with curly arrows showing how the electrons move from one contributor to the next.

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