Group 14 element

The Group 14 elements, also known as the carbon group and the Group IV elements, is a group of elements on the periodic table. Each element has 4 valence electrons. Group 14 elements include carbon, the most important compound for living things and organic chemistry, and silicon, the second-most-common element on Earth which is one of the main elements in rocks and inorganic chemistry.

Properties

The group 14 elements are very different from each other. It is the only group to contain all of nonmetals (carbon), metalloids (silicon and germanium), and metals (tin and lead). While the group follows normal periodic trends for how big the atoms are and the energy released by adding electrons, most others trends have some exceptions: lead is harder to remove electrons from than tin, and how hard the atom pulls in covalent bonds has no periodic pattern at all, being ordered C > Pb > Ge > Sn > Si.

Group 14 elements make different types of ions. Carbon and silicon can only make positively charged cations as part of polyatomic ions (carbocations and silylium ions). Germanium cations have been made using coordination complexes stabilised by cryptands. Tin and lead make cations similar to other metals.

Carbon is the only group 14 element that makes simple anions, but the other group 14 elements can make larger nanoclusters caled Zintl ions that share their negative charge over many atoms.

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  Carbon
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  Silicon
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  Germanium
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  Tin
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  Lead