Carbon dioxide (CO2) is formed when one carbon atom covalently bonds with two oxygen atoms. The carbon atom, which is in Group IVA, typically needs to form four bonds to satisfy the octet rule. However, in CO2, it forms double bonds with each oxygen atom.
Each carbon-oxygen double bond consists of two shared pairs of electrons (two covalent bonds). Therefore, CO2 has:
- 1 carbon atom forming 2 double bonds with 2 oxygen atoms.
Thus, the correct interpretation is that CO2 contains two double covalent bonds.
Since each double bond can be considered as two individual covalent bonds, it means there are four covalent bonds in total in CO2.
Therefore, the correct answer is:
A. four covalent bonds.