Reaction of an element to form large compounds

[Aswathy]

How does a stable bond causes an element to react and form large number of compounds? Like for instance carbon.

[Fuzzwood]

Very simple: it doesn't

[Aswathy]

Then why?

[mississippichem]

How does a stable bond causes an element to react and form large number of compounds? Like for instance carbon.

 

Stable bonds don't cause anything to react. In fact it is quite the opposite.

 

The reason chemicals react at all is to form a new chemical species that is more stable than either reactant separately. The best way to look at what's going on is to examine the atomic and molecular orbitals as they are what really makes and breaks bonds.

 

So lets take a simple (perhaps the most simple) example. Two hydrogen atoms both have one electron each, in the ground state this is called a 1s orbital. When those two hydrogens come together their 1s orbitals come together and mix to make a [imath] 1s-1s, \sigma , \ a_{1} \ [/imath]molecular orbital. This molecular orbital is lower in energy than either of the hydrogen 1s atomic orbitals so nature thermodynamically favors the forming of this bond.

[Fuzzwood]

And for purposes of conservation of energy: they also create an empty antibonding orbital which is higher in energy. This is the reason why He₂ does not exist because there, the bonding and antibonding orbitals are filled. There is no energy gain, only a loss of entropy.

Edited December 26, 2011 by Fuzzwood