Question

Why does carbon form compounds mainly by covalent bonding?

Answer 1

Carbon has the atomic number 6 so it has an electronic configuration of 1s2 2s2 2p2 that is it has 4 electrons in the valence shell and thus to form a bond it has to either donate it's 4 electrons or accept it according to the octet rule to attain stability.

Now to participate in ionic bonding it needs to knock of an electron or two but we can't do that as it will require a lot of energy.

But in covalent bonding is like love.Both the species has to give love (electrons) to attain stability (peaceful couple).

Thus for carbon covalent bonding is much easier.

But no one said it can't form ionic bond at all there exists some compounds with ionic bond like aluminium carbide , calcium carbide etc

If it still doesn't quench your thirst think of a compound of carbon.Now measure the difference of electronegativity between the species.If the value is more than 1.7 then the compound will be ionic if less then it's polar.

What did you find?

Hope I gave a satisfactory answer.

Just like carbon likes to form covalent bond I like to get thanks and brainliest answer

Answer 2

Answer:

Carbon has 4 electrons in its outermost shell and requires 4 more electrons to attain a noble gas electronic configuration. ... So, carbonachieves a noble gas electronic configuration only by sharing its 4 valence electrons with other elements. Thus, it forms compounds mainly by covalent bonds.