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Hydrogen compounds of group IV elements
The IVth group of the periodic system contains the elements: C, Si,
Ge, Sn, and Pb.
Carbon.
Man has known carbon, as charcoal from the combustion of wood, from
prehistoric times. Its name derives from the Latin "carbo" meaning
charcoal. The element is unique in the vast number of its compounds- there
are probably more than one million known today.
Carbon is widely distributed throughout the universe. Much of
the energy of the sun and stars is due to the carbon cycle. Both black and
transparent diamonds have been found in meteorites. The cosmic abundance is
six times that of silicon. The name of this element derives from a
corruption of the Greek word "adamas" meaning invincible. Combined with
hydrogen, carbon occurs extensively as coal, petroleum and natural gas. In
spite of its wide spread occurrence carbon still only constitutes 0.027% of
the earth's crust. The distribution of terrestrial carbon is approximately
as follows: minerals-99.7%, atmosphere-0.2%, and living matter-0.01%.
Even if combining with hydrogen is very difficult to achieve, a great
number of hydrides of carbon is known which is the object of organic
chemistry.
The hydrides of carbon are covalent compounds. Carbon possesses in
the valence shell four electrons and forms four bonds in almost all of its
combinations.
The bonds of carbon aren't made with the pure orbitals 2s2p, but with some
hybrid tetrahedral orbitals. The saturated hydrides of carbon don't have an
acid character, which means that don't have the tendency to loose protons.
In a period this tendency increases from the 4th to the 7th group. So in
the series:
H H H
H:C:H H:N:H :O:H :F:H
H
HF gives easily the proton to water and forms ions like F |