Question

Why does carbon has valency 4 and chlorine 1?

Answer 1

Explanation:

Carbon has valency 4 and chlorine has valence 1.

This is because,

Carbon has a total of 6 electrons so it's Electronic Configuration = 'K' Shell = 2 electrons and 'L' Shell = 4 electron

Thus to complete it's octet it needs 4 electrons so the valency of Carbon is 4.

Similarly,

Chlorine has a total of 17 electrons so it's Electronic Configuration = 'K' Shell = 2 electrons, 'L' Shell = 8 electrons and 'M' Shell = 7 electrons

Thus to complete it's octet it needs 1 electron so the valency of Chlorine is 1.