Carbon-containing compounds

There is an immense number of distinct compounds that contain carbon atoms. Some sources suggest that this number is close to almost ten million known. but it is possible that the number is even higher

Organic compounds

Main article: Organic compound

Every single organic compound contains at least one atom of carbon. The number of these compounds is immense and probably is close to 10 million.

Inorganic compounds

There is a rich variety of carbon chemistry that does not fall within the realm of organic chemistry and is thus called inorganic carbon chemistry.

Perhaps the best known are the oxides of carbon, carbon dioxide (CO₂) and carbon monoxide (CO). Other known oxides are the uncommon carbon suboxide, C₃O₂, the uncommon dicarbon monoxide, C₂O and even the exotic carbon trioxide (CO₃). The only known acid that is derived from these oxides is the carbonic acid (H₂CO₃). Upon monodeprotonation of this acid, bicarbonates are formed, which can be further derpotonated to carbonates.

Other types of inorganic compounds include (but are not limited to) inorganic salts and complexes of the carbon-containing polyatomic ions, cyanide, isocyanide, cyanate, thiocyanate, and carbide. Metal carbonyls are complexes that are formed with the neutral ligand CO.

The known inorganic chemistry of the allotropes of carbon (diamond, graphite, and the fullerenes) blossomed with the discovery of buckminsterfullerene in 1985, as additional fullerenes and their various derivatives were discovered. One such class of derivatives is inclusion compounds, in which an ion is enclosed by the all-carbon shell of the fullerene. This inclusion is denoted by the "@" symbol. For example, an ion consisting of a lithium ion trapped within buckminsterfullerene would be denoted Li⁺@C₆₀. As with any other ionic compound, this complex ion could in principle pair with a counterion to form a salt.

For a more complete listing of inorganic carbon compounds on Wikipedia see Inorganic compounds by element#Carbon.

Alloys

There are several alloys that contain carbon of which the best known alloy is carbon steel (see category:steels)). Besides steel, other alloys based on iron and carbon are: anthracite iron, cast iron, pig iron, wrought iron, but also spiegeleisen (which cntains also manganese). Stellite is an alloy of carbon with cobalt, chromium and tungsten.