why there are no quadruple bonds existing between hydrocarbons

334 views

Alkane is single bond, alkene is double bond, alkyne is triple bond, but why’s there no quadruple bond?

In: 1

9 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The short answer is that it’s the wrong shape. If you were to imagine the orbitals of carbon forming a 3D shape, it would be a triangular pyramid (aka a d4 if you’re into dice). Bonding wise, one electron can be considered to live at each point of the pyramid. It’s easy to see how you could align two of these so that one, two, or three of the points are able to touch at the same time, but there is no way to make it work so that all 4 points on both pyramids are touching.

Another comment goes into the more involved description about orbitals and hybridization and so on, but it really just boils down to carbon isn’t the right shape.

You are viewing 1 out of 9 answers, click here to view all answers.