Carbon: Always Tetravalent and Often TetrahedralĪtoms combine in many different ways. We are carbon-based life forms! Carbon compounds are also used in a wide range of synthetic materials, such as pharmaceuticals, polymers, and high-tech materials we also consume a lot of carbon compounds by burning them for fuel. Carbon is a key building block of the major molecules of life: proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and carbohydrates. ![]() Under the conditions that persist on the surface of the Earth carbon compounds are stable enough to hang around but not stable enough to persist forever, so they are not dead ends. Carbon is distinguished from most other elements in its ability to form a vast array of diverse compounds by bonding with itself and other elements with bonds that are not too strong and not too weak. Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe (~3,032 atoms per million), after hydrogen (~705,700 atoms per million), helium (~275,200 atoms per million), and oxygen (~5,920 atoms per million). To extend our discussion to the wider world of what we might call heterogenous molecules, that is, molecules made up of atoms of more than one element, we will begin with carbon. Both involve understanding the concepts underlying how atoms interact. Modern chemistry is concerned (largely) with putting atoms together to form new and useful molecules. ![]() Much of the efforts of alchemists, early chemists, and the modern refining industry involve determining how to (economically) separate specific types of atoms (elements) away from others. Moreover, pure elements are rare in nature. ![]() While this makes things simpler (although you might not agree after thinking about the many forms of carbon), it leaves out the vast majority of the compounds that exist in the world and their chemistries. Up until this point we have considered only bonds between atoms of the same element.
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