The charge of a carbon ion is four.
The reason why carbon is the building block of all organic matter is because of its tendency to bond with other and . Elements naturally want to stabilize themselves, and when they do not fill their orbital to the their furthest capacity, 8, they bond to share electrons.
To find the charge of any given element:
-Locate the element, and by counting from the noble gas (far right of the periodic table), subtract start from 8. Ne, (8 electrons), F(7), O(6), N(5), C(4).
