Question

How does Carbon attain noble gas configuration?

Answer 1

The atomic number of C atoms is 6.
The noble gas configuration is the configuration with complete octet.

Complete step by step answer:
In the question it is asked how a C atom can get a noble gas configuration.
So for this question, our approach will be based on its atomic number, electronic configuration, its valency etc.
So let’s see where the C is placed in a periodic table.
-Carbon is a p-block element which is placed in the ${{14}^{th}}$ group and ${{2}^{nd}}$ period of the periodic table.
-The atomic number of C is 6, hence 6 electrons are present and its atomic mass is 12.
-Since 6 electrons are present, the distribution of electron or the electronic configuration of C is as follows,
Electronic configuration of C = $1{{s}^{2}}2{{s}^{2}}2{{p}^{2}}$
-From the electronic configuration of C, we could say that there are 4 electrons in the valence shell, so the C atom is tetravalent in nature.
-C has the tendency to form four bonds
-C cannot gain 4 electrons (${{C}^{4-}}$), since its atomic size is small, it is hard to hold extra four electrons and as well as well as it cannot lose 4 electrons (${{C}^{4+}}$) to form compounds like ionic compounds.
-C could form bonds through sharing of the electrons with itself or with other atoms only.
And through sharing of electrons with other atoms or with another C atom only a C could attain the stable noble gas configuration.
-C could form bonds with H, Cl, Br, O, N etc. through sharing of electrons between the atoms.
-And this type of bond formed between the atoms through sharing of electrons is called covalent bonds.

So we can conclude that the C atom could only form noble gas configuration through the sharing of electrons between other C atom and any other hetero atom.

Note: There are two important characteristic for C that helps in attains the noble gas configuration-
A) Catenation- it is a property of C to form bonds between themselves I.e. a C atom would form a covalent bond with another C atom through sharing of electrons and this is one of the versatile characteristics of C through which it forms a large number of compounds.
B) Tetravalency –the carbon can form bonds with four monovalent atoms, with O, N, S etc.