What other elements is carbon usually found with?
Carbon often makes bonds with other carbon molecules, oxygen, hydrogen, halides, nitrogen, and sulfur. Carbon bonds with oxygen either in a double bond form (one sigma bond and one planar bond) to form a carbonyl compound or can also bond to -OH to create an alcohol. Carbon bonds with halides to create alkyl halides, with nitrogen to form nitriles, amines, or amides (or derivatives thereof), and with sulfur to form thiols or mercaptans. In organolithium or Grignard reactions where carbon acts as a nucleophile, carbon can be found bonded to lithium or magnesium. When the four bonds of carbon are not specified in a diagram the missing elements are assumed to be hydrogen unless otherwise stated.
