Question

State the reason why carbon can neither form C⁴⁺ cation nor C⁴⁻ anion.

Answer 1

Carbon cannot form C⁴⁺ cation because removing four electrons requires very high energy, and it cannot form C⁴⁻ anion because its nucleus (with 6 protons) cannot hold 10 electrons stably.

Hence, carbon forms covalent bonds by sharing electrons instead of forming ions.