The Importance of Carbon
- Carbon is found in:
- DNA
- Proteins
- Carbohydrates
- Lipids
- Valence electrons: electrons in the outermost shell
- Ionization energy decreases with atomic size - further from the pull of the nucleus
- Types of bonds
- Ionic bonds: one molecule just takes the electron from another molecule
- Like NaCl
- Magnetic based attraction
- Covalent bonds: electron is shared and orbiting around 2 nuclei
- Hydrogen forms covalent bonds because it doesnât give away its only electron
- Single, double, and triple covalent bonds exist
- Polar covalent bond: covalent bond but electron is not equally shared
- Common with Hydrogen
- Causes partial negative charge / partial positive charge
- Silicon seems like a similar backbone as Carbon, but when it interacts with water it becomes sand
- Also itâs too heavy to be a backbone
- However, there are planets where lakes are hydrocarbon liquid (gas), where silicon could be the backbone of life
- None of the organic elements have the versatility (4 valence electrons) that Carbon does
- Chirality
- When carbon forms 4 separate bonds, it makes a tetrahedral shape
- Chiral molecules are almost identical, but not because theyâre mirror images, and they behave slightly differently
- They are in tons of key biological molecules
- Structures are âright handedâ and âleft handedâ
- DNA is all right handed
- Proteins and other structures only work on one chirality because it depends on how it fits into the structure