Introduction
Carbon is an element the symbol of carbon is C it is a non metals the name carbon is derived from the Latin word Carbo which means cool the amount of carbon present in the earth crust and atmosphere is a very small for example the earth crust contain only 0.02% carbon in the form of minerals like carbonate coal and petroleum and the atmosphere has only 0.03% of carbon dioxide gas all the living things plants and animals are made up of carbon based compound which are called organic compound a large number of things which we use in daily life are made of carbon compounds so it is clear that carbon element play a very important role in our daily life we can test the presence of carbon in a mineral on the basis of the fact that carbon and its compound burn in air to give carbon dioxide which turns limewater milky
Properties of Carbon
Carbon has mainly three properties
Carbon always form covalent bond
Carbon is tetravalent
self combination
Carbon always form covalent bond
The atomic number of carbon is 6 that mean neutral atom of carbon content six electron to the electronic configuration of carbon is 2 and 4 carbon has four electrons in outermost cell so it shouldn't either lose for electron or gain for electron to achieve the inert gas electronic configuration and become stable but it is very hard to lose 4 electrons or gain for electrons so carbon can share its electron since carbon atoms can achieve the inert gas electron arrangement only by the sharing of electrons therefore carbon always form covalent bond
Carbon is tetravalent
Carbon atom has four electrons in its outermost cell so it require for electron to achieve stable since one carbon atom required for an electron to achieve the eight electron inert gas structure therefore the valency of carbon is 4 that is carbon is tetravalent it is equal to 4 and valent is equal to valency the four valency of carbon are usually represented by putting four sorts line on the symbol of carbon c
Self combination
The most outstanding or unique property of carbon is its ability to combine with itself atom to form long chain the property of self combination of carbon atom is form long chain is useful to us because it give rise to an extremely large number of carbon compounds or organic compounds this is because a long chain of carbon atom acts as a backbone to which other atom can attach in a number of way to form a very large number of carbon compounds or organic compounds the formation of strong bond by carbon atom among them self and with other element makes the carbon compounds exceptionally stable no other element exhibit the property of self combination known as catenation except carbon
Occurrence of carbon
Carbon occurs in nature in free state as element as well as in combined state in the form of compounds with other elements
In free state
In free state carbon occurs in naturally mainly to form graphite and diamond another naturally occurring from carbon c a l l e d buckminsterfullerene has been discovered recently but most of the carbon occurs in combined state
In combined state
In combined state carbon occur in nature in the form of compounds such as carbon dioxide in air carbonate like limestone marble fossil fuel like Coal Petroleum organic compounds like carbohydrate fat wood cotton and wool etc
Allotropes of carbon
The various physical form in which an element can exist a called allotrope there are three allotrope of carbon are diamond graphite and buckminsterfullerene
Graphite and diamond are mainly to common allotrope but buckminsterfullerene is a new allotrope of carbon which has discovered recently
Diamond(hardest substance)
Diamond is a transparent substance having extra ordinary brittleness diamond is quite heavy it is the hardest natural substance in the world Diamond does not conduct electricity diamond is extremely hard Diamond bones on strong heating to form carbon dioxide if we burn diamond in oxygen then only carbon dioxide gas is formed and nothing is left behind this shows that diamond is made up of carbon dioxide only as we know diamond is made up of carbon dioxide so it's symbol is taken to be C
Graphite
Graphite is a grease black Opaque substance graphite is a lighter than Diamond graphite conduct electricity verified burn on strong heating to form carbon dioxide graphite is soft and slippery to touch if you burn graphite in oxygen then only carbon dioxide gas is formed and nothing is left behind this shows that graphite is made up of carbon is only as we know graphite is made up of carbon so its symbol is taken to be C
Structure of diamond
The Diamond crystal is very big molecule or giant molecule of carbon atoms each carbon atom in diamond crystal is linked to four other carbon atoms by strong covalent bond the four surrounding carbon atom are at four vertex or four corners of a regular tetrahedron The Diamond crystal is therefore made up of carbon atom which is powerful bonded to one and other by a network of covalent bond due to this Diamond structure is very rigid the rigid structure of diamond makes it a very hard substance the melting point of diamond is also very high big more than 3500 degree Celsius there are no free electrons in a diamond crystal it doesn't conduct electricity
Structure of Graphite
The structure of graphite is very different from the of diamond and graphite crystal consists of layer of carbon atom or seat of carbon atom each carbon atom in a graphite layer is joined to three other carbon atom by strong covalent bond to form flat hexagonal ring under various layer of carbon atom in graphite are quiet for apart so that no covalent bond can exist between them the various layer of carbon atom in graphite are held Together by weak vendor was force due to the seat like structure graphite is a comparatively soft substance graphite is a good conductor of electricity due to the presence of free electrons in a graphite crystal is conduct electricity just like diamond graphite has also very very high melting point
Buckminsterfullerene
Buckminsterfullerene is an allotrope of carbon contents cluster of 60 carbon atom joined together to form a spherical molecule since there are 60 carbon atom in molecules of buckminsterfullerene its formula is 360 buckminsterfullerene is a football shaped spherical molecule in which 60 carbon atoms are arranged in interlocking hexagonal and pentagonal ring of carbon atom there are 20 hexagonal and 12 pentagonal of carbon atom in one molecule of buckminsterfullerene the allotrope was named buckminsterfullerene after the American artist buckminster fuller because it structure assemble the framework of dome shaped hall designed by the fuller for large International Exhibition buckminsterfullerene is the dark solid at room if we burn buckminsterfullerene in oxygen then only carbon dioxide is formed and nothing is left behind this shows that buckminsterfullerene is made up of carbon only diamond is extremely hardware is graphite is soft on other hand buckminsterfullerene is neither very hard nor soft.
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