Question

Why carbon shows remarkably the property of catenation?

Answer 1

Explanation:

In chemistry, catenation is the bonding of atoms of the same element into a series, called a chain. A chain or a ring shape may be open if its ends are not bonded to each other (an open-chain compound), or closed if they are bonded in a ring (a cyclic compound).

Look up catenation or catenate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Catenation occurs most readily with carbon, which forms covalent bonds with other carbon atoms to form longer chains and structures. This is the reason for the presence of the vast number of organic compounds in nature. Carbon is most well known for its properties of catenation, with organic chemistry essentially being the study of catenated carbon structures (and known as catenae). Carbon chains in biochemistry combine any of various other elements, such as hydrogen, oxygen, and biometals, onto the backbone of carbon, and proteins[contradictory] can combine multiple chains encoded by multiple genes (such as light chains and heavy chains making up antibodies).

However, carbon is by no means the only element capable of forming such catenae, and several other main-group elements are capable of forming an expansive range of catenae, including silicon, sulfur and boron.