Explain the following:

(a) Tetravalency

(b) Catenation

(a) Tetravalency : Carbon has four valence electrons (At. no. of C = 6; Electronic Config. 2,4). Since it can neither lose nor gain electrons to attain octet, it forms covalent bonds by sharing it's four electrons with other atoms. This characteristics of the carbon atom , by virtue of which it forms four covalent bonds , is called the tetravalency of carbon.

(b) Catenation : The property of self linking of atoms of an element through covalent bonds in order to form straight chains, branched chains and cyclic chains of different sizes is known as catenation.