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Main Article:: Allotropes of Carbon

Carbon exists in various allotropes, including amorphous carbon, graphite, and diamond, each with distinct properties. Graphite is a good conductor of electricity and a lubricant, while diamond is the hardest known material and an excellent thermal conductor. Other allotropes like fullerenes and graphene have unique applications and potential for future technologies.

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4 views3 pages

Main Article:: Allotropes of Carbon

Carbon exists in various allotropes, including amorphous carbon, graphite, and diamond, each with distinct properties. Graphite is a good conductor of electricity and a lubricant, while diamond is the hardest known material and an excellent thermal conductor. Other allotropes like fullerenes and graphene have unique applications and potential for future technologies.

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ABHISHEK CHAKRABORTY
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Allotropes

Main article: Allotropes of carbon


Atomic carbon is a very short-lived species and, therefore, carbon is stabilized in
various multi-atomic structures with diverse molecular configurations
called allotropes. The three relatively well-known allotropes of carbon are amorphous
carbon, graphite, and diamond. Once considered exotic, fullerenes are nowadays
commonly synthesized and used in research; they include buckyballs,[34][35] carbon
nanotubes,[36] carbon nanobuds[37] and nanofibers.[38][39] Several other exotic allotropes
have also been discovered, such as lonsdaleite,[40] glassy carbon,[41] carbon
nanofoam[42] and linear acetylenic carbon (carbyne).[43]

The system of carbon allotropes spans a range of extremes:

Graphite is one of the Synthetic nanocrystalline diamond is the hardest


softest materials known. material known.[44]

Graphite is a very good


lubricant, Diamond is the ultimate abrasive.
displaying superlubricity.
[45]

Diamond is an excellent electrical insulator,[47] and has


Graphite is a conductor of
the highest breakdown electric field of any known
electricity.[46]
material.

Some forms of graphite


are used for thermal
insulation (i.e. firebreaks Diamond is the best known naturally occurring thermal
and heat shields), but conductor.
some other forms are
good thermal conductors.

Graphite is opaque. Diamond is highly transparent.

Graphite crystallizes in
Diamond crystallizes in the cubic system.
the hexagonal system.[48]

Amorphous carbon is Carbon nanotubes are among the


completely isotropic. most anisotropic materials known.

Graphene is a two-dimensional sheet of carbon with the atoms arranged in a


hexagonal lattice. As of 2009, graphene appears to be the strongest material ever
tested.[49] The process of separating it from graphite will require some further
technological development before it is economical for industrial processes.[50] If
successful, graphene could be used in the construction of a space elevator. It could
also be used to safely store hydrogen for use in a hydrogen based engine in cars.[51]
A large sample of glassy carbon
The amorphous form is an assortment of carbon atoms in a non-crystalline, irregular,
glassy state, not held in a crystalline macrostructure. It is present as a powder, and
is the main constituent of substances such as charcoal, lampblack (soot),
and activated carbon. At normal pressures, carbon takes the form of graphite, in
which each atom is bonded trigonally to three others in a plane composed of
fused hexagonal rings, just like those in aromatic hydrocarbons.[52] The resulting
network is 2-dimensional, and the resulting flat sheets are stacked and loosely
bonded through weak van der Waals forces. This gives graphite its softness and
its cleaving properties (the sheets slip easily past one another). Because of the
delocalization of one of the outer electrons of each atom to form a π-cloud, graphite
conducts electricity, but only in the plane of each covalently bonded sheet. This
results in a lower bulk electrical conductivity for carbon than for most metals. The
delocalization also accounts for the energetic stability of graphite over diamond at
room temperature.[53]
Some allotropes of
carbon: a) diamond; b) graphite; c) lonsdaleite; d–f) fullerenes (C60, C540, C70); g) amorphous
carbon; h) carbon nanotube
At very high pressures, carbon forms the more compact allotrope, diamond, having
nearly twice the density of graphite. Here, each atom is bonded tetrahedrally to four
others, forming a 3-dimensional network of puckered six-membered rings of atoms.
Diamond has the same cubic structure as silicon and germanium, and because of
the strength of the carbon-carbon bonds, it is the hardest naturally occurring
substance measured by resistance to scratching. Contrary to the popular belief
that "diamonds are forever", they are thermodynamically unstable (ΔfG°(diamond,
298 K) = 2.9 kJ/mol[54]) under normal conditions (298 K, 105 Pa) and should
theoretically transform into graphite.[55] But due to a high activation energy barrier, the
transition into graphite is so slow at normal temperature that it is unnoticeable.
However, at very high temperatures diamond will turn into graphite, and diamonds
can burn up in a house fire. The bottom left corner of the phase diagram for carbon
has not been scrutinized experimentally. Although a computational study
employing density functional theory methods reached the conclusion that as T → 0
K and p → 0 Pa, diamond becomes more stable than graphite by approximately
1.1 kJ/mol,[56] more recent and definitive experimental and computational studies
show that graphite is more stable than diamond for T < 400 K, without applied
pressure, by 2.7 kJ/mol at T = 0 K and 3.2 kJ/mol at T = 298.15 K.[57] Under some
conditions, carbon crystallizes as lonsdaleite, a hexagonal crystal lattice with all
atoms covalently bonded and properties similar to those of diamond.[40]

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