Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/paper-1/a4/a/i/solution

The alternating short and long bonds preserve fourfold, but not eightfold, rotations. Including the molecular plane and inversion symmetry, the planar structure belongs to , the D4h molecular point group.
Use the printed axes: the short bonds are –, –, – and –, and the and axes pass through the midpoints of opposite short bonds. Interchanging short and long bonds is not a molecular symmetry operation of this geometry.

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