The Carbon Family
Group 14 (IVA) consists of carbon, silicon, germanium, tin, and lead. Carbon is a non-metal, silicon and germanium are metalloids, and tin and lead are metals.
With 4 electrons in the valence shell, elements of the carbon family tend to form covalent compounds. With increasing mass and atomic radius these elements become increasingly metallic and have lower melting and boiling points.
Group 14 elements form gaseous hydrogen compounds with difficulty. These are either unstable or combustible. Lead forms oxides, sulfides, and halides in the +4 oxidation state. The +4 oxidation state predominates in carbon, silicon, and germanium; the +2 and +4 oxidation states appear in tin, and the +2 oxidation state prevails in lead.
Carbon compounds are covalent. Carbon forms double and even triple bonds with itself or other elements. It forms compounds that the heavy elements of this group do not form for example acetylene (C2H2). Silicon and the heavier elements of this group form only single bonds.
Thus carbon dioxide CO2 is a gas at normal temperatures because the double bonds between carbon and oxygen create single molecules, but silicon dioxide SiO2 forms a hard rock which is quartz because it is a covalent network solid. Each silicon atom bonds to four different oxygen atoms with single bonds, and each oxygen atom bonds with two silicon atoms.
Vocabulary
carbon углерод
silicon кремний
germanium германий
tin олово
lead свинец
valence shell валентная оболочка
to form образовывать
with increasing с увеличением
hydrogen compounds водородные соединения
to form something with difficulty образовывать что-то с трудностью
unstable не устойчивый
combustible возгораемый
either .. or либо … либо
sulfides сульфиды
halides галиды
oxidation state степень окисления
to prevail преобладать
to appear присутствовать, появляться
double bonds двойные связи
triple bonds тройные связи
heavy тяжелый
acetylene ацетилен
single bonds одинарные связи
thus таким образом
a hard rock твердая порода
between между
covalent network solid ковалентное тесло с сетчатой структурой
each каждый
to bond to присоединяться
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