Can carbon form a quadrouple covalent bond with another carbon?

Question

I am in 9th grade, so I asked my mom if carbon can form a quadrouple covalent bond with another carbon atom, and she said no.

But I dont see why they cant, since they have 4 valence electrons then why cant they form a quadrouple covalent bond

Answer 1

lol..i don't think so.

Answer 2

No, but the reason is complicated. Usually the example given is that the four covalent bonds are pointing in four different directions, so that they can't all match up at the same time.

I'm sure the real answer involves some fancy math. But for most of us, the answer is a simple 'no'.

Answer 3

No.  A carbon-carbon triple bond basically uses all of the available bonding electrons that lie between the two carbon atoms.

Using valence bond theory, we can picture a triple bond as the sigma bond (end-to-end overlap of sp hybrid orbitals) plus two pi bonds (side-to-side overlap of unhybridized p-orbitals).  

The hybridization called sp produces two lobes that are 180 degrees apart.  Only one of these from each carbon atom will be available for bonding between the carbon atoms, leaving the ones that are 180 degrees apart to bond with hydrogen or other elements.  

Take a look at this diagram for acetylene, C2H2.

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~huskey/ima...