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Carbon is one of the few elements that can form long chains of its own atoms, a property called catenation.This coupled with the strength of the carbon–carbon bond gives rise to an enormous number of molecular forms, many of which are important structural elements of life, so carbon compounds have their own field of study: organic chemistry.
It bonds readily with other small atoms, including other carbon atoms, and is capable of forming multiple stable covalent bonds with suitable multivalent atoms. Carbon is a component element in the large majority of all chemical compounds, with about two hundred million examples having been described in the published chemical literature. [18]
Number of C atoms Number of isomers [3] [4] Number of isomers including stereoisomers [3] [5] Molecular Formula Name of straight chain Synonyms 1 1 1 CH 4: methane: methyl hydride; natural gas 2 1 1 C 2 H 6: ethane: dimethyl; ethyl hydride; methyl methane 3 1 1 C 3 H 8: propane: dimethyl methane; propyl hydride 4 2 2 C 4 H 10: n-butane: butyl ...
Cyclic compounds that have both carbon and non-carbon atoms present are heterocyclic carbon compounds, and the name refers to inorganic cyclic compounds as well (e.g., siloxanes, which contain only silicon and oxygen in the rings, and borazines, which contain only boron and nitrogen in the rings). [5]
In general bonds of carbon with other elements are covalent bonds. Carbon is tetravalent but carbon free radicals and carbenes occur as short-lived intermediates. Ions of carbon are carbocations and carbanions are also short-lived. An important carbon property is catenation as the ability to form long carbon chains and rings. [3]
In mathematical terms, the combinatorial topology (that is, the carbon atoms and the bonds between them, ignoring their positions and distances) of a closed-shell fullerene with a simple sphere-like mean surface (orientable, genus zero) can be represented as a convex polyhedron; more precisely, its one-dimensional skeleton, consisting of its ...
A phenyl group has six carbon atoms bonded together in a hexagonal planar ring, five of which are bonded to individual hydrogen atoms, with the remaining carbon bonded to a substituent. Phenyl groups are commonplace in organic chemistry. [1]
A quaternary carbon is a carbon atom bound to four other carbon atoms. [1] For this reason, quaternary carbon atoms are found only in hydrocarbons having at least five carbon atoms. Quaternary carbon atoms can occur in branched alkanes , but not in linear alkanes.