Question

Why is it said that atoms cannot usually gain or lose 4 electrons? Is it possible under special conditions?

Answer 1

Atoms cannot usually gain or lose 4 electrons becoz it requires an enormous amount of energy.

Special cases :
Since carbon has 4 electrons in it’s outermost orbit so , it can gain stability either by gaining 4 electrons or by losing 4 electrons of it’s orbit . Both the cases requires an enormous amount of energy which is not feasible for an atom .So even if the carbon atom can gain electrons, but it gets stability by sharing it’s four electrons .