Tendency for Catenation

Catenation is the ability of an element to bond with itself, building up chains of atoms. For an element to catenate well, four conditions have to be met: (i) its valency must be at least two, (ii) it must be able to bond to itself, (iii) that self-to-self bond must be roughly as strong as its bond to other elements, and (iv) the resulting catenated compound must be kinetically inert toward other molecules (i.e. not fall apart or react away too readily). …