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About Carbon and its compounds
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- Atomic Number: Carbon is a chemical element with the atomic number 6 and the symbol C.
- Covalent Bonding: Bonds which are formed by the sharing of an electron pair between two atoms are known as covalent bonds.
- Weak Intermolecular Force: Covalently bonded molecules are seen to have strong bonds within the molecule, but intermolecular forces are weak.
- This gives rise to the low melting and boiling points of these compounds.
- Covalent compounds such as Carbon are generally poor conductors of electricity.
- Reason being that the bonding in the carbon and its compounds does not give rise to any ions.
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Carbon’s Tetravalency and Covalent Bonds: A Comparative Analysis
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- To achieve the electronic configuration of the nearest noble gas, “He” , if the carbon atom loses four of its valence electrons, a huge amount of energy is involved.
- C4+ ions, hence formed, will be highly unstable due to the presence of six protons and two electrons.
- If the carbon atom gains four electrons to achieve the nearest electronic configuration of the noble gas, Ne, C4− ions will be formed.
- But again, a huge amount of energy is required. Moreover, in C4+ ions it is difficult for 6 protons to hold 10 electrons.
- Hence, to satisfy its tetravalency, carbon shares all four of its valence electrons and forms covalent bonds.
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Bonding in Hydrogen:
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- The simplest molecule formed in this manner is that of hydrogen. As we know that the atomic number of hydrogen is 1.
- Hence hydrogen has one electron in its K shell and it requires one more electron to fill the K shell.
- So two hydrogen atoms share their electrons to form a molecule of hydrogen, H2.
- This allows each hydrogen atom to attain the electronic configuration of the nearest noble gas, helium, which has two electrons in its K shell.
- The shared pair of electrons is said to constitute a single covalent bond between the two hydrogen atoms.
 [Single bond between two hydrogen atoms]
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Hydrogen Bonding: Forming Covalent Bonds in Hydrogen Molecules
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- In the case of oxygen, we see the formation of a double bond between two oxygen atoms.
- This is because an atom of oxygen has six electrons in its L shell (the atomic number of oxygen is eight) and it requires two more electrons to complete its octet.
- So each atom of oxygen shares two electrons with another atom of oxygen to give us the structure shown in.
- The two electrons contributed by each oxygen atom give rise to two shared pairs of electrons. This is said to constitute a double bond between the two atoms.
[Double Bond between two Oxygen atoms]
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Triple Bonding in Nitrogen: Achieving Noble Gas Configuration through Shared Electrons
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- Each nitrogen atom has five electrons in the valence shell (2, 5).
- It requires three electrons to acquire the nearest noble gas configuration (Ne).
- Therefore, both atoms share three electrons each and form a triple bond.
 [Triple bond between two Nitrogen atoms]
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