What is the condensed electron configuration for carbon?

Answer 1

A carbon atom has a total of six electrons occupying the first two shells, i.e., the K-shell has two electrons and the L-shell has four electrons. This distribution indicates that in the outermost shell there are one completely filled 's' orbital and two half-filled 'p' orbitals, showing carbon to be a divalent atom. But in actuality, carbon displays tetravalency in the combined state. Therefore, a carbon atom has four valence electrons. It could gain four electrons to form C4- anion or lose four electrons to form C4+ cation. Both these conditions would take carbon far away from achieving stability by the octect rule. To overcome this problem carbon undergoes bonding by sharing its valence electrons. This allows it to be covalently bonded to one, two, three or four carbon atoms or atoms of other elements or groups of atoms.

Answer 2

The electron configuration of carbon is 1s2 2s2 2p2. The shorthand version is [He] 2s2 2p2.

Answer 3

1s^2 2s^2 2p^2

Answer 4

1s2 2s2 2p2

Answer 5

1s2 2s2 2p2

Answer 6

2,4