The conversation between human and AI assistant.
Why does each element only react with certain elements? What causes this? Why does carbon only react with some elements?
I see. So why does carbon only react with some elements and not others?
Carbon has four valence electrons, which is why it forms stable covalent bonds with other atoms that also have a relatively small number of valence electrons - such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur. However, it doesn't tend to form ionic bonds with metals, because the electronegativity difference between carbon and most metals is too large for that type of bond to be stable.