Essay about Structure of Carbon

Submitted By Oyinkan-Olotu
Words: 361
Pages: 2

The Structure of Carbon
Carbon is one of the most important elements, it is part of every living organisms. This is because it’s very good at binding to itself. This allows very long chains of complex molecules to form, which allows living organisms to do many things. Carbon has many different forms these are called allotropes. Two of these are Graphite and Diamond. Diamond and Graphite have extremely strong structures made of many large bonds.

Structure of Graphite
Graphite has an electronic structure of 2,4. It is made from carbon.
In graphite the Carbon atoms form in layers and this means that graphite is much softer than diamond, that is why it is used to write with and the layer can easily slide over each other, because the layers are separate and in the gap the bond is weaker.

Physical Properties
Graphite has a high melting and boiling points because the covalent bonds are really strong so they can’t be easily broken.
Graphite can conduct electricity and heat because it contains delocalised electrons (free electrons). The delocalised electrons can move through the graphite, carrying charge from place to place.
Graphite is black in colour and it’s opaque.

Structure of Diamond
Diamond is another form of carbon which has been under intense pressure and heat under the earth’s surface. Diamonds consists of 8 atoms. This makes diamond very stable and rigid this is also why diamonds are so very hard and have a high melting point, as its difficult to break