The Element of Life
Carbons are crucial for life to happen. It's complex, yet its functional and flexible structure allows it to form a variety of bonds with different elements. Carbon is supplied by the carbon cycle and can be easily found in nature. Among other reasons, carbon became one of the most important elements in the composition of life as we know. Considering carbon's properties that make it so imporant, which of the mentioned properties below are true?
I. Carbon has 4 valence electrons, which is crucial in its role to make bonds with other elements.
II. Carbon has a positive charge, and that's why it easily combines with negatively charged oxygen atoms to make, for example, (carbon dioxide) and (carboxyl).
III. Carbon is usually found in nature combined with one or more of these following elements: hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sodium.
IV. Carbon's importance is due to it's 4 valence electrons, however, if it did not occur in nature, it could be easily substituted by another elements such as silicon, which also has 4 valence electrons.
V. Every organic compound has a carbon, but not every carbon containing compound is organic.
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1 solution
I. True. It's 4 valent electrons makes it able to make covalent bonds with several elements, which gives its importance in the composition in so many molecules found in life.
II. False. A carbon ion has a negative charge, and so does oxygen. They share two electrons through covalent bonding to make C O 2 , for example, which will complete both orbitals.
III. False. Carbon is not usually found in nature with sodium.
IV. False. Silicon atoms are very stable, they wouldn't enter a chemical reaction so easily, and therefore wouldn't serve much the complex system of life we have which requires large amounts of chemical reactions. It is great for storing information, though, and that's why your computer is mostly made of silicon.
V. True. Indeed every organic compound has a carbon and are usually found in a biologic system (in a living organism, for example), yet carbon dioxide is not organic, nor are cyanides.
Therefore, I and V is correct.