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Carbon compounds are defined as chemical substances containing carbon. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] More compounds of carbon exist than any other chemical element except for hydrogen . Organic carbon compounds are far more numerous than inorganic carbon compounds.
Carbon-based compounds form the basis of all known life on Earth, and the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle provides a small portion of the energy produced by the Sun, and most of the energy in larger stars (e.g. Sirius). Although it forms an extraordinary variety of compounds, most forms of carbon are comparatively unreactive under normal conditions.
The Lewis structure of a carbon atom, showing its four valence electrons. Carbon is a primary component of all known life on Earth, and represents approximately 45–50% of all dry biomass. [1] Carbon compounds occur naturally in great abundance on Earth.
For example, carbon-containing compounds such as alkanes (e.g. methane CH 4) and its derivatives are universally considered organic, but many others are sometimes considered inorganic, such as halides of carbon without carbon-hydrogen and carbon-carbon bonds (e.g. carbon tetrachloride CCl 4), and certain compounds of carbon with nitrogen and ...
Carbon is most commonly used in its amorphous form. In this form, carbon is used for steelmaking, as carbon black, as a filling in tires, in respirators, and as activated charcoal. Carbon is also used in the form of graphite, for example as the lead in pencils. Diamond, another form of carbon, is commonly used in jewelry. [18]
A ketone compound containing a carbonyl group (C=O) In organic chemistry, a carbonyl group is a functional group with the formula C=O, composed of a carbon atom double-bonded to an oxygen atom, and it is divalent at the C atom.
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.
All compounds are substances, but not all substances are compounds. A chemical compound can be either atoms bonded together in molecules or crystals in which atoms, molecules or ions form a crystalline lattice. Compounds based primarily on carbon and hydrogen atoms are called organic compounds, and all others are called inorganic compounds.