How many electrons do carbon and oxygen share?

since carbon has 4 valence electrons you would need 2 oxygens because oxygen has 6 valence electrons so one occurred would share to if it's electrons with carbon and then the second oxygen would share it's other two electrons with the last two valence electrons with carbon.

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snehashish65 snehashish65 · Answer 2 · 2021-11-11T12:12:34+01:00

The carbon and oxygen will share 2 electrons to gain a stable electronic configuration

The reason of sharing of electrons within the elements is that, every elements has the tendency to gain a stable electronic configuration. To do so, the elements either gain electrons or loose electrons.

But in some instance, the sharing of electrons also happens to form a compound having a stable electronic configuration.

The electronic configuration of carbon is, [tex][1s^{2} \;2s^{2} \; 2p^{2}][/tex].

And electronic configuration of oxygen is, [tex][1s^{2} \;2s^{2} \; 2p^{4}][/tex] .

Clearly, each of carbon and oxygen has partially filled p-subshell, where carbon has 2 electrons extra, and oxygen has 2 electrons less to gain a stable electronic configuration.

So, carbon will loose 2 electrons which is received by oxygen.

Thus, we can conclude that carbon and oxygen will share 2 electrons to gain a stable electronic configuration.

Learn more about electronic stability here:

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