Question

What is tetravalency of carbon?

Answer 1

Carbon is placed in the second period and the fourth group of the periodic table. It is represented by the symbol ‘C’ with the atomic number is 6. It possesses properties such as tetravalency and catenation.

Complete step-by-step answer: - Carbon is found abundantly in nature. It is a part of all living things and quite a few non-living things.
- Carbon possesses atomic number 6, it means that carbon atom has a total of 6 electrons. In simple ways, its electronic configuration can be written as 2,4. It means it has 4 electrons in the outermost shell.
- Carbon obeys the octet rule and forms 4 covalent bonds with other atoms to get a stable electronic configuration. Thus, carbon is tetravalent. It means that the valency of carbon is 4 and can form 4 covalent bonds with not only other atoms but other carbon atoms as well. This is called tetravalency of carbon.
- It is a unique property of carbon as it forms very strong covalent bonds with other carbon atoms called catenation.
- Due to this property carbon can form long straight, branched and cyclic chains. Carbon can form single, double and triple covalent bonds with other carbon atoms.

Note: Above electronic configuration of carbon shows that carbon has only 2 unpaired electrons. So, it can only form 2 bonds in its ground state. Although we know carbon forms 4 covalent bonds. Here the concept of excited state comes.