Question

Carbon can share a maximum of how many of its valence electrons when bonding to other atoms?

2

4

6

Cannot be determined

Answer 1

Carbon can share a maximum of four of its valence electrons when bonding to other atoms. This is the reason why organic molecules can be so large because of this bonding. Suppose you have a compound of CCl4. You know that chlorine can only share 1 electron because 7 of its electrons are filled. Also, in carbon, it can only share 4 electrons because 4 of it are already filled. That is why carbon needs four chlorine to form CCl4.