Question

Oxygen, carbon and hydrogen form how many bond (s) respectively?

Answer 1

Hint:. The answer to this question is based on the valency of an atom and the octet rule and also whether the atom exists as diatomic or monatomic or triatomic and thus on the basis of valency of an atom, the required answer can be approached.

Complete step by step answer:
- In the classes of chemistry, we have come across the basic concepts of inorganic chemistry which deals with the bonding and also the types of bonds which can be calculated using several theories like MOT, VBT, VSEPR and so on.
Now, let us see how we can calculate the number of bonds that an atom is capable to form.
- Now, considering oxygen atom the electronic configuration of oxygen with atomic number 8 will be $1{{s}^{2}}2{{s}^{2}}2{{p}^{6}}3{{s}^{2}}3{{p}^{4}}$ . Here, oxygen has a total of 6 valence electrons but to form stable octet structure, the oxygen gets a valency of two and the octet structure then satisfies.
Thus the oxygen is capable of forming two covalent bonds.
- In case of carbon with atomic number 12 and electronic configuration $1{{s}^{2}}2{{s}^{2}}2{{p}^{2}}$, and it has outermost 4 electrons and need 4 more electrons to complete the octet structure and hence carbon forms 4 single covalent bonds and has the valency of 4.
- In case of hydrogen with atomic number 1 and configuration $1{{s}^{1}}$ has the capability to form only one covalent bond as it needs only one electron to fill its energy levels.

Note: Note that the octet rule is the chemical rule of thumb which reflects the theory that the main group elements tend to bond in such a way that each atom will have eight electrons in its valence shell giving the same configuration as that of noble gas and this rule explains the formation of chemical bonds.