The table shown below gives the bond dissociation energies $\left(E_{\text{diss }}\right)$ for single covalent bonds of carbon (C) atoms with element A, B, C and D. Which element has the smallest atoms.

Bond	Ediss (kJ/mol)
C-A	240
C-B	328
C-C	276
C-D	485

The bond length is inversely proportional to the bond energy. This means that a shorter length corresponds to a high dissociation energy, and vice-versa. In the given table, C-D has the highest bond dissociation energy, implying that C-D has the shortest bond length. As a result, the smallest atom is D.