- carbon - valency and electronic configuration The atomic number of carbon is 6. Its electronic configuration is 2, 4. It requires, 4 electrons to achieve the inert gas electronic configuration. - allotropes in carbon- diamond and graphite(difference in physical and chemical properties) -bonding in carbon (covalnet bond) • carbon requires 4 electrons to achieve the inert gas electronic configuration. But carbon cannot form an ionic bond • It could gain four electrons forming C4- cation. But it would be difficult for the nucleus with six protons to hold on to ten electrons. • It could lose four electrons forming C4+ cations. But it requires a large amount of energy to remove four electrons. • Thus, carbon overcomes this problem by sharing of its valence electrons with other carbon atoms or with atoms of other elements. • The bond formed by mutual sharing of electron pairs between two atoms in a molecule is known as Covalent Bond -types of bonds that carbon can form(single , double) -lewis structures with examples