Carbon and its Compounds in Science

Updated on November 10, 2025 | By Learnzy Academy

Carbon is a non-metallic element found in all living things. It is a very important element because it can form a large number of compounds — more than any other element. This is due to its unique properties like catenation (forming chains) and tetravalency (making four bonds).

Carbon compounds are substances made up of carbon atoms bonded with other elements like hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, etc. These compounds are called organic compounds when found in or related to living organisms

Examples of Carbon Compounds:

  • Methane (CH₄) – used as a fuel
  • Ethanol (C₂H₅OH) – found in alcoholic drinks and sanitizers
  • Glucose (C₆H₁₂O₆) – sugar used by our body for energy
  • Carbon dioxide (CO₂) – gas released during breathing and combustion

Types of Carbon Compounds:

  1. Organic compounds – contain carbon and hydrogen, usually from living things
  2. Inorganic compounds – like carbon dioxide, carbonates, etc.

Carbon and its compounds are used in fuels, plastics, medicines, and many everyday products.

Click here to download practice questions on Carbon and its Compounds

List of question on "Carbon and its Compounds"

  1. What will be the formula and electron dot structure of cyclopentane?
  2. What are the two properties of carbon which lead to the huge number of carbon compounds we see around us?
  3. A mixture of oxygen and ethyne is burnt for welding. Can you tell why a mixture of ethyne and air is not used?
  4. Why is the conversion of ethanol to ethanoic acid an oxidation reaction?
  5. What are oxidising agents?
  6. How would you distinguish experimentally between an alcohol and a carboxylic acid?
  7. People use a variety of methods to wash clothes. Usually after adding the soap, they ‘beat’ the clothes on a stone, or beat it with a paddle, scrub with a brush or the mixture is agitated in a washing machine. Why is agitation necessary to get clean clothes?
  8. Would you be able to check if water is hard by using a detergent?
  9. Explain the mechanism of the cleaning action of soaps.
  10. Give a test that can be used to differentiate between saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons
  11. Which of the following hydrocarbons undergo addition reactions: C₂H₆, C₃H₈, C₃H₆, C₂H₂, and CH₄?
  12. What is hydrogenation? What is its industrial application?
  13. What change will you observe if you test soap with litmus paper (red and blue)?
  14. Explain the formation of scum when hard water is treated with soap.
  15. Why are carbon and its compounds used as fuels for most applications?
  16. Why does micelle formation take place when soap is added to water? Will a micelle be formed in other solvents such as ethanol also?
  17. How can ethanol and ethanoic acid be differentiated on the basis of their physical and chemical properties?
  18. What is an homologous series? Explain with an example.
  19. Explain the nature of the covalent bond using the bond formation in CH₃Cl.
  20. While cooking, if the bottom of the vessel is getting blackened on the outside, it means that
  21. Butanone is a four-carbon compound with the functional group
  22. Ethane, with the molecular formula C2H6 has