Carbon Chemistry

1. THE BEST SCIENTIST IS OPEN TO EXPERIENCE AND BEGINS WITH
ROMANCE - THE IDEA THAT ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. - Ray Bradbury –
DON’T SAY YOU DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME. YOU HAVE EXACTLY THE SAME
NUMBER OF HOURS PER DAY THAT WERE GIVEN TO HELEN KELLER,
PASTEUR, MICHAELANGELO, MOTHER TERESEA, LEONARDO DA VINCI,
THOMAS JEFFERSON AND ALBERT EINSTEIN. - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.-

2. CARBON CHEMISTRY
Atomic Number 6
Atomic Mass Average: 12.011
Melting Point: 3823 K (3550°C or 6422°F)
Boiling Point: 4098 K (3825°C or 6917°F)
Density: 2.267g/cu.cm.
CARBON HAS FIVE KNOWN ALLOTROPES (crystal form):
AMORPHOUS
GRAPHITE
DIAMOND
FULLERENE
MAGNETIC CARBON NANOFOAM
NOTE: TUNGSTEN HAS THE HIGHEST MELTING POINT OF ANY
METAL AT 3422o C. IRON HAS A MELTING POINT OF 1535o C.

3. protons neutrons mass number
carbon 12 6 6 12
carbon 13 6 7 13
carbon 14 6 8 14
ISOTOPES OF CARBON

4. CARBON DATING
THE AMOUNT OF 14C REMAINS APPROXIMATELY CONSTANT
IN THE ATMOSPHERE BECAUSE 14C IS BEING FORMED IN
THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE THROUGH NEUTRON CAPTURE.
14
7N + 1n  14
6C + 1p
CARBON-14 DECAYS WITH A HALF LIFE OF 5715 YEARS.
14
6C  14
7N + 0e
WE ASSUME THAT THE RATIO OF CARBON 14 TO CARBON
12 HAS BEEN CONSTANT FOR AT LEAST 50,000 YEARS.

5. HERE ARE THREE WAYS OF REPRESENTING
THE MOLECULE METHANE.
CARBON CAN FORM 4 COVALENT BONDS AS IT HAS 4
VALENCE ELECTRONS.

6. SPACE FILLING MODEL

7. ONE ALLOTROPE OF
CARBON IS DIAMOND.
ONE CARBON ATOM IS
BONDED TO FOUR
OTHER CARBON
ATOMS.
THIS PROVIDES A VERY
STRONG STRUCTURE,
MAKING DIAMOND THE
HARDEST MATERIAL
KNOWN.

8. ANOTHER CRYSTAL FORM OF CARBON IS GRAPHITE. HERE,
CARBON FORMS 3 COVALENT BONDS AND HAS ONE FREE
ELECTRON.

9. THE SAME KIND OF BONDING WOULD BE USED IN
FULLERENES.
A C60
FULLERENE

10. Creative Chemistry Interactive Molecular Models -
Carbon Allotropes

11. THE TABLE BELOW COMPARES THE PROPERTIES
OF GRAPHITE AND CARBON - TWO ALLOTROPES
OF CARBON THAT USE DIFFERENT BONDING.
Diamond Graphite
Boiling Point 4827 C 4827 C
Melting Point 3550 C 3550 C
Hardness Hardest sub. Known Soft
Conductivity Insulator Good conductor
Density 3.514 g/cm3
2.26 g/cm3
DO DIAMONDS BURN??

12. Indeed, diamonds do burn. However, since they're pure carbon,
and in the burning process are converted to carbon dioxide
(only), there is no ash residue whatever.
Had an interesting thing occur once when a home burned
down and a rather "costly" jewelry piece was lost. It turned out
that what was thought to be a diamond was found amid the
melted gold remains of the setting. The stone was completely
intact and undamaged. It was later discovered to be a cubic
zirconia (fake diamond) that would not burn. The fellow's wife
was not impressed that her husband would have fooled her
into thinking he had spent big money on a diamond when he
had actually bought her a vastly less expensive cubic zirconia.
Regards,
ProfHoff

13. GRAPHITE IS THE STABLE ALLOTROPE AT ROOM
TEMPERATURE.
In 1955 GE developed a process to make industrial
diamonds. Graphite is heated in the presence of a
metal catalyst at temperatures of from 2000 to 3000
K and pressures of 125,000 atm.

14. THERE IS AN ENTIRE BRANCH OF CHEMISTRY
DEVOTED TO THE CHEMISTRY OF CARBON
COMPOUNDS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY.
THERE ARE SEVERAL BRANCHES OF ORGANIC
CHEMISTRY:
1) BIOCHEMISTRY - THE CHEMISTRY OF LIVING
ORGANISMS
2) POLYMER CHEMISTRY - THE CHEMISTRY OF
VERY LARGE MOLECULES OF REPEATING
STRUCTURE
3) ORGANIC SYNTHESIS - THE SCIENCE OF
BUILDING MOLECULES OF GIVEN STRUCTURES
4) ORGANIC ANALYSIS - COMPOSITION AND
STRUCTURE DETERMINATION