The food you eat, the clothes you wear, the cosmetics you use, the fuels you use to run automobiles are all the compounds of carbon.

Carbon was discovered in prehistory and it was known to the ancients. They used to manufacture charcoal by burning organic material.

carbon is a non-metal. It belongs to the fourteenth group or IV A group in the modern periodic table. The elements of this group have four electrons in the valence shell.

Electronic configuration of carbon (ground state) ₆C: 1s₂ 2s₂ 2p₂. To get the octet in its outer shell it has to gain four more electrons to form C^4-. The electronegativity of carbon is only 2.5 and its nucleus has only six protons. Therefore it would be difficult for a nucleus with six protons to hold ten electrons. Hence, carbon cannot form C ^4-ions so easily.

• Can carbon get helium configuration by losing four electrons from the outer shell?

If carbon loses four electrons from the outer shell, it has to form C4+ ions. This requires huge amount of energy which is not available normally. Therefore C4+ formation also is a remote possibility. Carbon has to satisfy its tetravalency by sharing electrons with other atoms. It has to form four covalent bonds either with its own atoms or atoms of other elements.