Why does carbon form compounds mainly by covalent bonding?
Answer:
- The carbon atom has a valency of 4 , which means that it has 4 electrons in the outermost shell.
- In order to attain noble gas configuration/stability, carbon will either lose or gain electrons.
-
The carbon atom is very
small in size.
So the distance between nucleus and valence electrons is very less . - Due to this, the nucleus exerts a lot of force on these electrons
- Hence,it is not possible to remove 4 electrons from a carbon atom and form C 4+ because an extremely large amount of energy will be required for the same.
