Home > Encyclopedia of Science > Carbon Family

• Carbon
• Occurrence of carbon
• Buckminsterfullerene
• Why carbon is special
• Silicon
• Germanium
• Tin
• Lead

The carbon family consists of the five elements that make up Group 14 of the periodic table: carbon, silicon, germanium, tin, and lead. The family is particularly interesting because it consists of one nonmetal (carbon), two metals (tin and lead), and two metalloids (silicon and germanium). (A metalloid is an element that has some of the properties of both metals and nonmetals.)

The atoms of all Group 14 elements have four electrons in their outermost energy level. In spite of this fact, the elements have less in common physically and chemically than do...