General Structure
Normally carbon is tetravalent while oxygen is divalent, and in most oxocarbons (as in most other carbon compounds) each carbon atom may be bound to four other atoms, while oxygen may be bound to at most two. Moreover, while carbon can connect to other carbons to form arbitrarily large chains or networks, chains of three or more oxygens are rarely if ever observed. Thus the known electrically neutral oxocarbons generally consist of one or more carbon skeletons (including cyclic and aromatic structures) connected and terminated by oxide (-O-, =O) or peroxide (-O-O-) groups.
Carbon atoms with unsatisfied bonds are found in some oxides, such as the diradical C2O or :C=C=O; but these compounds are generally too reactive to be isolated in bulk. Loss or gain of electrons can result in monovalent negative oxygen (-O−), trivalent positive oxygen (≡O+), or trivalent negative carbon (≡C−). The last two are found in carbon monoxide, −C≡O+. Negative oxygen occurs in most oxocarbon anions.
Read more about this topic: Oxides Of Carbon
Famous quotes containing the words general and/or structure:
“The general public is easy. You don’t have to answer to anyone; and as long as you follow the rules of your profession, you needn’t worry about the consequences. But the problem with the powerful and rich is that when they are sick, they really want their doctors to cure them.”
—Molière [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (1622–1673)
“I really do inhabit a system in which words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where words can prove mightier than ten military divisions.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)