Why does carbon has valency 4 and chlorine 1?

The electronic configuration of Carbon is: 2,4. We can see that there are 4 electrons in the valence shell of Carbon, thus it has a valency of 4.

The electronic configuration of Chlorine is: 2,8,7. Though there are 7 electrons in valence shell of Cl but instead of losing 7 electrons it tends to gain 1 electron. Thus its valency is 1.


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