---
title: "Sulfate ion Template – Chemistry Diagram | MolDraw"
url: https://www.moldraw.com/templates/resonance-sulfate/
description: "Sulfate ion template: SO₄²⁻: three of the six equivalent expanded-octet forms with two S=O and two S–O⁻ (the usual textbook drawing), and the octet form with…"
lang: en
publisher: Scidart Academy
generated: 2026-10-28
---
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# Sulfate ion template

![Sulfate ion template: SO₄²⁻: three of the six equivalent expanded-octet forms with two S=O and two S–O⁻ (the usual textbook drawing), and the octet form with S²⁺ and four S–O⁻ reached by moving the S=O π bonds onto oxygen.](https://www.moldraw.com/templates/resonance-sulfate.webp)

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SO₄²⁻: three of the six equivalent expanded-octet forms with two S=O and two S–O⁻ (the usual textbook drawing), and the octet form with S²⁺ and four S–O⁻ reached by moving the S=O π bonds onto oxygen.

## What the template shows

- Textbook expanded-octet forms (two S=O) and the octet form with S²⁺
- expanded octet
- Resonance contributors
- Expanded-octet forms
- Textbook convention: two S=O, two S–O⁻ (3 of 6 forms)
- Octet form
- Moving the S=O π bonds onto O: S²⁺, four S–O⁻
- Convention: school and many university texts draw sulfate with two S=O bonds (twelve electrons on S), which minimises formal charges; there are six such equivalent forms.
- Modern bonding analysis favours the octet form (S²⁺, four S–O⁻) with very polar bonds; sulfur d orbitals play little part.
- Every description gives four equal S–O bonds (about 149 pm) in a tetrahedral ion, with each oxygen carrying −½ of the charge.
- Total charge is −2 in every form.
- Contributors are not in equilibrium: the real species is one hybrid of them · every part of this figure is editable

Drawn with 30 atoms, 10 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 Sulfate ion template free?

You can preview the Sulfate 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 Sulfate 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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