Tetravalency and Catenation
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- The fact that carbon can form single, double, and triple bonds demonstrates its versatility.
- It can also form chains, branching chains, and rings when joined to other carbon atoms.
- It’s a versatile element that can be found in a wide variety of chemical combinations.
- Carbon’s versatility is best appreciated through properties like tetravalency and catenation.
- Tetravalency: Carbon has a valency of four, so it is capable of bonding with four other atoms of carbon or atoms of some other mono-valent element.
- Catenation: The property of a carbon element due to which its atom can join one another to form long carbon chains is called catenation.
- S8: In its native state, sulphur shows catenation of up to 8 atoms in the form of S8 molecule. It has a puckered ring structure.
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