IIT JEE , AIEEE Forum - Chemistry , Inorganic Chemistry

gabriel

Why carbon show max tendency to catenate??

devjani

Carbon shows the maximum tendency to catenate.

Reasons:-

1) Greater M-M bond energy. (83 kcal/mol)

2) C-C bond energy is approximately of the same value as the energies of bonds between carbon and other elements.

C-C : 83 kcal/mol

C-O : 86 kcal/mol

C-Cl : 81 kcal/mol

Do ask me if you need more clarification...

neeleshv

Also due to its samll size and effective hybridisation

smriti.mathur

Carbon has a marked ability to form chains (catenation).This is because the C-C bonds are very strong, the bond energy being 348 KJ/mole. The bonds Si-Si, Ge-Ge and Sn-Sn decrease progressively in strength, their bond energies being 297, 260 and 240 KJ/mole respectively. Thus the tendency to catenate is maximum in carbon.

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