Versatile Nature of Carbon

Question 1 Why is carbon versatile in nature?

Question 2 What is catenation?

Question 3 Why carbon carbon bond very stable?

Question 4 Why carbon can form bonds with other atoms?

Question 5 What are saturated compounds?

Question 6 What are unsaturated compounds?

Class	Class 10
Subject	Science
Chapter Name	Carbon and its Compound
Chapter No.	Chapter 4
Topic	Versatile Nature of Carbon
Category	Class 10 Science Notes

Carbon is versatile in nature

1) Carbon has the ability to form bonds with the other carbon atoms due to which it can form large molecules. This property is called catenation. No other element exhibits the property of catenation to the extent seen in carbon compounds. The carbon-carbon bond is very strong and hence stable. This gives us the large number of compounds with many carbon atoms linked to each other.

2) Carbon is tetravalent which means it has a valency of four. Since carbon has a valency of four, it is capable of bonding with four other atoms of carbon or atoms of some other monovalent element. Compounds of carbon are formed with oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, chlorine and many other elements giving rise to compounds with specific properties which depend on the elements other than carbon present in the molecule.

3) It is capable of forming a large number of organic compounds. These compounds may have long chains of carbon, branched chains of carbon or even carbon atoms arranged in rings. In addition, carbon atoms may be linked by single, double or triple bonds.

Saturated Compounds

Compounds of carbon, which are linked by only single bonds between the carbon atoms are called saturated compounds.

Unsaturated Compounds

Compounds of carbon having double or triple bonds between their carbon atoms are called unsaturated compounds.

Silicon forms compounds with hydrogen which have chains of upto seven or eight atoms, but these compounds are very reactive.

Again the bonds that carbon forms with most other elements are very strong making these compounds exceptionally stable.

One reason for the formation of strong bonds by carbon is its small size. This enables the nucleus to hold on to the shared pairs of electrons strongly. The bonds formed by elements having bigger atoms are much weaker.