Chapter 9, Problem 68AE

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener marketed under the name Nutra-Sweet. A partial Lewis structure for aspartame is shown below.

Aspartame can be classified as an organic compound (a compound based on carbon atoms). The majority of Lewis structures for simple organic compounds have all atoms with a formal charge of zero. Therefore, add lone pairs and multiple bonds to the structure above to give each atom a formal charge of zero when drawing the Lewis structure. Also note that the six-sided ring is shorthand notation for a benzene ring (—C₆H₅). Benzene is discussed in Section 4-7. Complete the Lewis structure for aspartame. How many C and N atoms exhibit sp¹ hybridization? How many C and O atoms exhibit sp³ hybridization? How many σ and π bonds are in aspartame?