Question

Carbon has four electrons in its valence shell. Which type of compounds can be formed by carbon atom and why ? Give any one example of such compounds.

Answer 1

Carbon has 4 electrons in its valence shell, so it should either lose 4 electrons or gain 4 electrons to achieve the inert gas configuration. But it is not possible to remove 4-electrons from a carbon atom. Also it is not possible to add as many as 4-electrons to the carbon atom due to high energy requirement.therefore carbon atom achieves the inert gas configuration only by sharing of electrons . Thus carbon always forms covalent bonds.