---
title: "Phosphate ion Template – Chemistry Diagram | MolDraw"
url: https://www.moldraw.com/templates/resonance-phosphate/
description: "Phosphate ion template: PO₄³⁻: the textbook forms with one P=O and three P–O⁻ (four equivalent ones, two shown), and the octet form with P⁺ and four P–O⁻.…"
lang: en
publisher: Scidart Academy
generated: 2026-10-28
---
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# Phosphate ion template

![Phosphate ion template: PO₄³⁻: the textbook forms with one P=O and three P–O⁻ (four equivalent ones, two shown), and the octet form with P⁺ and four P–O⁻.](https://www.moldraw.com/templates/resonance-phosphate.webp)

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PO₄³⁻: the textbook forms with one P=O and three P–O⁻ (four equivalent ones, two shown), and the octet form with P⁺ and four P–O⁻.

## What the template shows

- Four equivalent forms with one P=O, and the octet form with P⁺
- expanded octet
- Resonance contributors
- Expanded-octet forms
- Textbook convention: one P=O, three P–O⁻ (2 of 4 forms)
- Octet form
- P⁺ with four P–O⁻
- Convention: phosphate is usually drawn with one P=O (ten electrons on P); the four such forms are equivalent.
- The octet form (P⁺, four P–O⁻) is favoured by modern bonding analysis; P=O is best seen as a polar P⁺–O⁻ bond.
- All four P–O bonds are equal in the tetrahedral ion, each oxygen carrying −¾; total charge −3 in every form.
- The same delocalisation stabilises the phosphate groups of ATP, DNA and phospholipids.
- Contributors are not in equilibrium: the real species is one hybrid of them · every part of this figure is editable

Drawn with 20 atoms, 5 arrows, 3 shapes – every one editable in MolDraw.

## Sources

- [Housecroft & Sharpe, Inorganic Chemistry, 5th ed., Pearson 2018](https://openlibrary.org/isbn/9781292134147) 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 Phosphate ion template free?

You can preview the Phosphate ion 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 Phosphate ion 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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