Question

Explain why carbon can bind with four other atoms while nitrogen can only bind with three and oxygen two?

Answer 1

Ans- Carbon molecules show two properties that makes it different from the rest - tetravalency and catenation.. in short its valency being 4 permits symmetric sharing of valence electrons unlike those of -3 and +5.

Catenation is the ability of an atom of an element to bond with many atoms of the same element to form long chains. Catenation is highest for Carbon among 4 electrovalent elements. the size of carbon ( nuclear attraction to hold the shared pair) contributes.

Nitrogen does to some extent. There is a functional group in organic chemistry which is three nitrogen atoms linked in a double bond chain called an Azide.
There is also Ozone, peroxides and Ozonides where oxygen forms chains.
Most any combination of atoms you can ever imagine will bond together, the question is are they stable enough to stick around so we can measure them. The problem with multi-nitrogen (4+) and multi-oxygen (3+) compounds is that most are not stable under standard conditions and have a low activation energy. So they tend to react into other things faster than they can form. Though some do exist: