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Carbon and its Compounds

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Why Carbon forms Covalent Bonds We know that a majority of substances used by us daily, from paper and plastics to coal and petrol, are all made up of carbon. Food grains, pulses, medicines, cotton, s ... ynthetic fibres, wood etc. are all made up of carbon. Carbon is also a major part of all living things. In air, it is present as carbon dioxide and comprises around 0.03% of the total air. Let us study about carbon and its bonding in its compound in more detail. Carbon is a non-metal having the symbol ‘C’ and atomic number six. Since the atomic number of carbon is six, its electronic configuration is 2, 4. This means that carbon contains two electrons in K shell and 4 electrons in L shell (outermost shell). Hence, it has four electrons in its valence shell. Since carbon has four electrons in its valence shell, it needs four more electrons to complete its octet. Therefore, it is a tetravalent element. In order to complete its octet i.e., to attain its noble gas configuration and to stabilize itself, carbon can: Either lose four electrons to form C4+ or gain four electrons to form C4−. This, however,requires a lot of energy and would make the system unstable.Therefore, carbon completes its octet by sharing its four electrons with the other carbonatoms or with atoms of other elements.The bonds that are formed by sharing electrons are known as covalentbonds. Covalently bonded molecules have weak intermolecular forces, butintramolecular forces are strong. [Show More]

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