a. State any two reasons for carbon forming a large number of compounds. Why does carbon form compounds i. mainly by covalent bonding? ii. having low melting and boiling points? b. With the help of balanced chemical equations, explain what happens when i. a piece of sodium is added to ethanol? ii. ethanol burns in the presence of oxygen?
Answer
a. property of carbon atom to combine with itself to form long chains is called catenation. small size of carbon atom i. It has 4 electrons in its outermost shell and needs to gain or lose 4 electrons to attain stable noble gas configuration. It would require a large amount of energy to gain or lose 4 electrons. So carbon atom shares 4 electrons with other atoms of carbon or with atoms of other elements to form covalent bonds. ii. Due to weak intermolecular forces carbon compounds have low melting and boiling points. b. $2 \mathrm{Na}+2 \mathrm{CH}_{3} \mathrm{CH}_{2} \mathrm{OH} \longrightarrow 2 \mathrm{CH}_{3} \mathrm{CH}_{2} \mathrm{ONa}+\mathrm{H}_{2}$ $\mathrm{CH}_{3} \mathrm{CH}_{2} \mathrm{OH}+3 \mathrm{O}_{2} \longrightarrow 2 \mathrm{CO}_{2}+3 \mathrm{H}_{2} \mathrm{O}$
