Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

RunagateRampant t1_j5ayda2 wrote

Carbon can form bonds with other carbon molecules. This can be a single bond, double bond, or triple bond. The reason a tetrabond between two carbons isn’t possible has to do with the geometry of the electron orbitals.

C2 alone isn’t possible. But C2H4 (ethylene) exists.

3

Indemnity4 t1_j5hlhek wrote

> C2 alone isn’t possible

Sure it is, in the gas phase! Diatomic carbon is represented as :C=C:. To get deeper into MO, it exists in both singlet and triple forms.

What is a little bit more complicated is quadruple bonded carbon. It does appear it can have a forth order bond to another carbon atom (tetravalent), but it is in the form of a pi-bond and two sigma-bonds.

2