Question

Carbon forms covalent bond. Why?

Answer 1

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Carbon has 4 electrons in its outermost shell. ... Therefore, carbon completes its octet by sharing its 4 electrons with other carbon atoms or with atoms of other elements and forms covalent bond. It forms strong covalent bonds because of its small size

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Answer 2

The atomic number of carbon is 6.

Electronic configuration: 2, 4

Carbon has 4 valence electrons in the last shell. So, it has valency of 4. It can gain or lose 4 electrons but cannot do so due to the following reasons:

• Carbon can gain 4 electrons forming 4- anion but it will be difficult for the nucleus with 6 protons holding on to 10 electrons i.e 4 more electrons
• Similarly, It can lose 4 electrons forming 4+ cation but it requires a large amount of nuclear energy to remove 4 electrons leaving with just 2 electrons and 6 protons in it's nucleus

Therefore, Carbon forms covalent bond

Covalent bond

The bonding formed between two or more elements due to mutual sharing of electrons between them and not by the transfer of electrons i.e (ionic bond)

Protons

They are the positively charged sub-particles present inside an atom. The number of proton defines the atomic number of that element.

Here, Carbon with 6 atomic number has 6 protons in it's nucleus

Electrons

They are the negatively charged sub-particles present inside an atom. The number of electrons defines the shell of the atom. More the number of electrons, more the number of shell.