Carbon never shows coordination number greater than four while other members of carbon family show coordination number as high as six - explain.

Explanation

In carbon the outermost orbit is second orbit which do not contain d-orbitals. So it can form only 4 bonds. In other elements, their atoms contain vacant d-orbitals in their valence shell. So they can accept electron pairs and show coordination number 6. But carbon cannot exhibit a coordinate number more than 4.