Physical properties carbon family elements

The elements have remarkably low specific gravity, and a high atomic volume (q.v.). The oxides and hydroxides are markedly basic they do not exhibit acidic qualities. The physical properties of the salts—solubility in water, molecular volume, optical properties, and the variation in the form of the crystals show the same order of variation as the atomic weights of the elements. Lithium differs in mafiy respects from the other members of the family. The salts of the alkali metals —nitrates, chlorides, sulphides, sulphates, phosphates, carbonates, etc.—are nearly all soluble in water, although lithium, carbonate, phosphate, and fluoride are very... 

This section summarizes the chemical and physical properties which are shared in some degree by all of the nonmetallic elements, and the following sections briefly delineate the chemistry of several additional nonmetallic elements—carbon, silicon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. A later section discusses the properties of the elements of the halogen family. 

A second reason for the vast number of organic compounds is that carbon atoms can form stable bonds with other elements. Several families of organic compounds (alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters, and ethers) contain oxygen atoms bonded to carbon. Others contain nitrogen, sulfur, or halogens. The presence of these elements confers a wide variety of new chemical and physical properties on an organic compound. 

How the Type of Bonding in an Element Affects Physical Properties 434 How Bonding Changes in the Carbon Family s Compounds 436 Highlights of Carbon Chemistry 436 Highlights of Silicon Chemistry 438... 

These multiple roles operate in parallel with a complex structural chemistry giving rise to families of chemically vastly different modifications of the element. It is a special characteristic of carbon chemistry that many of these modifications cannot be obtained as phase-pure materials. This limits the exact knowledge ol physical and chemical properties to a few archetype modifications, namely graphite and diamond. 

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