Answer to Question #38230 in Organic Chemistry for deepak sharma

Question

why does carbon not take part in ionic bond formation

Answer 1

Carbon has the median electronegativity. Its electronegativity is significantly lower than that of oxygen or fluorine, but compared with metals its electronegativity is considerably high, so the charged carbon compounds are less stabilized. Nevertheless they can exist at the specific conditions in the solution or even in solid state. Such compounds as methyllithium, ferrocene or tropilium tetrafluorborate contain charge that is localized on carbon atom or distributed between several carbon atoms.