Explain why carbon forms compounds mainly by covalent bond. Explain in brief two main reasons for carbon forming a large number of compounds. Why does carbon form strong bonds with most other elements?
Carbon has 4 electrons in the outermost shell and requires 4 more electrons to attain configuration of a noble gas. It cannot for either a C4+ ion because removal of such large number of electrons need huge amount of energy nor can it form C4- Ion, as its nucleus with 6 protons cannot handle 10 electrons due to inter electronic repulsions. Thus it can achieve a noble gas electronic configuration only by sharing 4 electrons. Thus it forms compounds mainly by covalent bonds.
Two main reasons for carbon forming a large number of compounds are-
a) Catenation- it is the ability of carbon to form bonds with other carbon atoms, this results in compounds having long branched chains and rings.
b) Tetravalency- Carbon has 4 valence electrons, so it is capable of forming covalent bonds with 4 other atoms.
Carbon forms strong bonds with most other elements because of its small atomic size, which enables its nucleus to strongly hold the shared pair of electrons.
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