Carbon
Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of
group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons
available to form covalent chemical bonds. There are three naturally occurring isotopes,
with 12C and 13C being stable, while 14C is radioactive, decaying with a half-life of about
5,730 years. Carbon is one of the few elements known since antiquity.
There are several allotropes of carbon of which the best known are graphite, diamond,
and amorphous carbon. The physical properties of carbon vary widely with the allotropic
form. For example, diamond is highly transparent, while graphite is opaque and black.
Diamond is among the hardest materials known, while graphite is soft enough to form a
streak on paper (hence its name, from the Greek word "to write"). Diamond has a very
low electrical conductivity, while graphite is a very good conductor. Under normal
conditions, diamond has the highest thermal conductivity of all known materials.
All carbon allotropes are solids under normal conditions with graphite being the most
thermodynamically stable form. They are chemically resistant and require high
temperature to react even with oxygen. The most common oxidation state of carbon in
inorganic compounds is +4, while +2 is found in carbon monoxide and other transition
metal carbonyl complexes. The largest sources of inorganic carbon are limestones,
dolomites and carbon dioxide, but significant quantities occur in organic deposits of coal,
peat, oil and methane clathrates. Carbon forms more compounds than any other element,
with almost ten million pure organic compounds described to date, which in turn are a
tiny fraction of such compounds that are theoretically possible under standard conditions.
Carbon is the 15th most abundant element in the Earth's crust, and the fourth most
abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. It is
present in all known life forms, and in the human body carbon is the second most
abundant element by mass (about 18.5%) after oxygen. This abundance, together with the
unique diversity of organic compounds and their unusual polymer-forming ability at the
temperatures commonly encountered on Earth, make this element the chemical basis of
all known life.
Characteristics
The different forms or allotropes of carbon (see below) include the hardest naturally
occurring substance, diamond, and also one of the softest known substances, graphite.
Moreover, it has an affinity for bonding with other small atoms, including other carbon
atoms, and is capable of forming multiple stable covalent bonds with such atoms. As a
result, carbon is known to form almost ten million different compounds; the large
majority of all chemical compounds. Carbon also has the highest sublimation point of all
elements. At atmospheric pressure it has no melting point as its triple point is at 10.8 ±
0.2 MPa and 4,600 ± 300 K (~4,330 °C or 7,820 °F), so it sublimates at about 3,900 K.
Carbon sublimes in a carbon arc which has a temperature of about 5,800 K (5,530 °C;
9,980 °F). Thus, irrespective of its allotropic form, carbon remains solid at higher
temperatures than the highest melting point metals such as tungsten or rhenium. Although
thermodynamically prone to oxidation, carbon resists oxidation more effectively than
elements such as iron and copper that are weaker reducing agents at room temperature.
Carbon compounds form the basis of all known life on Earth, and the carbon-nitrogen
cycle provides some of the energy produced by the Sun and other stars. Although it forms
an extraordinary variety of compounds, most forms of carbon are comparatively
unreactive under normal conditions. At standard temperature and pressure, it resists all
but the strongest oxidizers. It does not react with sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, chlorine
or any alkalis. At elevated temperatures carbon reacts with oxygen to form carbon oxides,
and will reduce such metal oxides as iron oxide to the metal. This exothermic reaction is
used in the iron and steel industry to control the carbon content of steel:
Fe3O4 + 4 C(s) → 3 Fe(s) + 4 CO(g)
with sulfur to form carbon disulfide and with steam in the coal-gas reaction:
C(s) + H2O(g) → CO(g) + H2(g).
Carbon combines with some metals at high temperatures to form metallic carbides, such
as the iron carbide cementite in steel, and tungsten carbide, widely used as an abrasive
and for making hard tips for cutting tools.
As of 2009, graphene appears to be the strongest material ever tested. However, the
process of separating it from graphite will require some technological development
before it is economical enough to be used in industrial processes.
Allotropes
Atomic carbon is a very short-lived species and, therefore, carbon is stabilized in various
multi-atomic structures with different 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, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanobuds and
nanofibers. Several other exotic allotropes have also been discovered, such as lonsdaleite,
glassy carbon, carbon nanofoam and linear acetylenic carbon (carbyne).
The amorphous form is an assortment of carbon atoms in a non-crystalline, irregular,
glassy state, which is essentially graphite but 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. 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.
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, thus
making 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 in terms of resistance
to scratching. Contrary to the popular belief that "diamonds are forever", they are in fact
thermodynamically unstable under normal conditions and transform into graphite.
However, due to a high activation energy barrier, the transition into graphite is so
extremely slow at room temperature as to be unnoticeable. Under some conditions,
carbon crystallizes as lonsdaleite. This form has a hexagonal crystal lattice where all
atoms are covalently bonded. Therefore, all properties of lonsdaleite are close to those of
diamond.
Fullerenes have a graphite-like structure, but instead of purely hexagonal packing, they
also contain pentagons (or even heptagons) of carbon atoms, which bend the sheet into
spheres, ellipses or cylinders. The properties of fullerenes (split into buckyballs,
buckytubes and nanobuds) have not yet been fully analyzed and represent an intense area
of research in nanomaterials. The names "fullerene" and "buckyball" are given after
Richard Buckminster Fuller, popularizer of geodesic domes, which resemble the structure
of fullerenes. The buckyballs are fairly large molecules formed completely of carbon
bonded trigonally, forming spheroids (the best-known and simplest is the soccerball-
shaped C60 buckminsterfullerene). Carbon nanotubes are structurally similar to
buckyballs, except that each atom is bonded trigonally in a curved sheet that forms a
hollow cylinder. Nanobuds were first reported in 2007 and are hybrid bucky
tube/buckyball materials (buckyballs are covalently bonded to the outer wall of a
nanotube) that combine the properties of both in a single structure.
Of the other discovered allotropes, carbon nanofoam is a ferromagnetic allotrope
discovered in 1997. It consists of a low-density cluster-assembly of carbon atoms strung
together in a loose three-dimensional web, in which the atoms are bonded trigonally in
six- and seven-membered rings. It is among the lightest known solids, with a density of
about 2 kg/m3.[35] Similarly, glassy carbon contains a high proportion of closed porosity,
[31]
but contrary to normal graphite, the graphitic layers are not stacked like pages in a
book, but have a more random arrangement. Linear acetylenic carbon[33] has the chemical
structure[33] -(C:::C)n-. Carbon in this modification is linear with sp orbital hybridization,
and is a polymer with alternating single and triple bonds. This type of carbyne is of
considerable interest to nanotechnology as its Young's modulus is forty times that of the
hardest known material – diamond.
Occurrence
Carbon is the fourth most abundant chemical element in the universe by mass after
hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. Carbon is abundant in the Sun, stars, comets, and in the
atmospheres of most planets. Some meteorites contain microscopic diamonds that were
formed when the solar system was still a protoplanetary disk. Microscopic diamonds may
also be formed by the intense pressure and high temperature at the sites of meteorite
impacts.
In combination with oxygen in carbon dioxide, carbon is found in the Earth's atmosphere
(approximately 810 gigatonnes of carbon) and dissolved in all water bodies
(approximately 36,000 gigatonnes of carbon). Around 1,900 gigatonnes of carbon are
present in the biosphere. Hydrocarbons (such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas) contain
carbon as well—coal "reserves" (not "resources") amount to around 900 gigatonnes, and
oil reserves around 150 gigatonnes. Proven sources of natural gas are about 175 1012
cubic metres (representing about 105 gigatonnes carbon), but it is estimated that there are
also about 900 1012 cubic metres of "unconventional" gas such as shale gas, representing
about 540 gigatonnes of carbon. (In the past, quantities of hydrocarbons were greater. In
the period from 1751 to 2008 about 347 gigatonnes of carbon were released as carbon
dioxide to the atmosphere from burning of fossil fuels.) Carbon is also locked up as
methane and methane hydrates in polar regions. It is estimated that at least 1,400 Gt of
carbon is in this form just in (and under) the submarine permafrost of the Siberian Shelf.
Carbon is a major component in very large masses of carbonate rock (limestone,
dolomite, marble and so on). Coal is the largest commercial source of mineral carbon,
accounting for 4,000 gigatonnes or 80% of fossil carbon fuel. It is also rich in carbon –
for example, anthracite contains 92–98%.
As for individual carbon allotropes, graphite is found in large quantities in the United
States (mostly in New York and Texas), Russia, Mexico, Greenland, and India. Natural
diamonds occur in the rock kimberlite, found in ancient volcanic "necks," or "pipes".
Most diamond deposits are in Africa, notably in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, the
Republic of the Congo, and Sierra Leone. There are also deposits in Arkansas, Canada,
the Russian Arctic, Brazil and in Northern and Western Australia. Diamonds are now also
being recovered from the ocean floor off the Cape of Good Hope. However, though
diamonds are found naturally, about 30% of all industrial diamonds used in the U.S. are
now made synthetically.
Carbon-14 is formed in upper layers of the troposphere and the stratosphere, at altitudes
of 9–15 km, by a reaction that is precipitated by cosmic rays. Thermal neutrons are
produced that collide with the nuclei of nitrogen-14, forming carbon-14 and a proton.
Isotopes
Isotopes of carbon are atomic nuclei that contain six protons plus a number of neutrons
(varying from 2 to 16). Carbon has two stable, naturally occurring isotopes. The isotope
carbon-12 (12C) forms 98.93% of the carbon on Earth, while carbon-13 (13C) forms the
remaining 1.07%.The concentration of 12C is further increased in biological materials
because biochemical reactions discriminate against 13C. In 1961 the International Union
of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) adopted the isotope carbon-12 as the basis for
atomic [Link] of carbon in NMR experiments is done with the isotope 13C.
Carbon-14 (14C) is a naturally occurring radioisotope which occurs in trace amounts on
Earth of up to 1 part per trillion (0.0000000001%), mostly confined to the atmosphere
and superficial deposits, particularly of peat and other organic materials.[46] This isotope
decays by 0.158 MeV β- emission. Because of its relatively short half-life of 5730 years,
14
C is virtually absent in ancient rocks, but is created in the upper atmosphere (lower
stratosphere and upper troposphere) by interaction of nitrogen with cosmic rays.[47] The
abundance of 14C in the atmosphere and in living organisms is almost constant, but
decreases predictably in their bodies after death. This principle is used in radiocarbon
dating, invented in 1949, which has been used extensively to determine the age of
carbonaceous materials with ages up to about 40,000 years.
There are 15 known isotopes of carbon and the shortest-lived of these is 8C which decays
through proton emission and alpha decay and has a half-life of 1.98739x10−21 s. The
exotic 19C exhibits a nuclear halo, which means its radius is appreciably larger than would
be expected if the nucleus were a sphere of constant density.
Formation in stars
Formation of the carbon atomic nucleus requires a nearly simultaneous triple collision of
alpha particles (helium nuclei) within the core of a giant or supergiant star which is
known as the triple-alpha process, as the products of further nuclear fusion reactions of
helium with hydrogen or another helium nucleus produce lithium-5 and beryllium-8
respectively, both of which are highly unstable and decay almost instantly back into
smaller nuclei. This happens in conditions of temperatures over 100 megakelvin and
helium concentration that the rapid expansion and cooling of the early universe
prohibited, and therefore no significant carbon was created during the Big Bang. Instead,
the interiors of stars in the horizontal branch transform three helium nuclei into carbon by
means of this triple-alpha process. In order to be available for formation of life as we
know it, this carbon must then later be scattered into space as dust, in supernova
explosions, as part of the material which later forms second, third-generation star systems
which have planets accreted from such [Link] Solar System is one such third-
generation star system. Another of the fusion mechanisms powering stars is the CNO
cycle, in which carbon acts as a catalyst to allow the reaction to proceed.
Rotational transitions of various isotopic forms of carbon monoxide (for example, 12CO,
13
CO, and C18O) are detectable in the submillimeter wavelength range, and are used in the
study of newly forming stars in molecular clouds.
Carbon cycle
Under terrestrial conditions, conversion of one element to another is very rare. Therefore,
the amount of carbon on Earth is effectively constant. Thus, processes that use carbon
must obtain it somewhere and dispose of it somewhere else. The paths that carbon
follows in the environment make up the carbon cycle. For example, plants draw carbon
dioxide out of their environment and use it to build biomass, as in carbon respiration or
the Calvin cycle, a process of carbon fixation. Some of this biomass is eaten by animals,
whereas some carbon is exhaled by animals as carbon dioxide. The carbon cycle is
considerably more complicated than this short loop; for example, some carbon dioxide is
dissolved in the oceans; dead plant or animal matter may become petroleum or coal,
which can burn with the release of carbon, should bacteria not consume it.
Compounds
Organic compounds.
Correlation between the carbon cycle and formation of organic compounds. In plants,
carbon dioxide formed by carbon fixation can join with water in photosynthesis (green)
to form organic compounds, which can be used and further converted by both plants and
animals.
Carbon has the ability to form very long chains of interconnecting C-C bonds. This
property is called catenation. Carbon-carbon bonds are strong, and stable. This property
allows carbon to form an almost infinite number of compounds; in fact, there are more
known carbon-containing compounds than all the compounds of the other chemical
elements combined except those of hydrogen (because almost all organic compounds
contain hydrogen too).
The simplest form of an organic molecule is the hydrocarbon—a large family of organic
molecules that are composed of hydrogen atoms bonded to a chain of carbon atoms.
Chain length, side chains and functional groups all affect the properties of organic
molecules. By IUPAC's definition, all the other organic compounds are functionalized
compounds of hydrocarbons.
Carbon occurs in all known organic life and is the basis of organic chemistry. When
united with hydrogen, it forms various hydrocarbons which are important to industry as
refrigerants, lubricants, solvents, as chemical feedstock for the manufacture of plastics
and petrochemicals and as fossil fuels.
When combined with oxygen and hydrogen, carbon can form many groups of important
biological compounds including sugars, lignans, chitins, alcohols, fats, and aromatic
esters, carotenoids and terpenes. With nitrogen it forms alkaloids, and with the addition of
sulfur also it forms antibiotics, amino acids, and rubber products. With the addition of
phosphorus to these other elements, it forms DNA and RNA, the chemical-code carriers
of life, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the most important energy-transfer molecule in
all living cells.
Inorganic compounds
Commonly carbon-containing compounds which are associated with minerals or which
do not contain hydrogen or fluorine, are treated separately from classical organic
compounds; however the definition is not rigid (see reference articles above). Among
these are the simple oxides of carbon. The most prominent oxide is carbon dioxide (CO2).
This was once the principal constituent of the paleoatmosphere, but is a minor component
of the Earth's atmosphere today.[58] Dissolved in water, it forms carbonic acid (H2CO3),
but as most compounds with multiple single-bonded oxygens on a single carbon it is
unstable. Through this intermediate, though, resonance-stabilized carbonate ions are
produced. Some important minerals are carbonates, notably calcite. Carbon disulfide
(CS2) is similar.
The other common oxide is carbon monoxide (CO). It is formed by incomplete
combustion, and is a colorless, odorless gas. The molecules each contain a triple bond
and are fairly polar, resulting in a tendency to bind permanently to hemoglobin
molecules, displacing oxygen, which has a lower binding affinity.[60][61] Cyanide (CN–),
has a similar structure, but behaves much like a halide ion (pseudohalogen). For example
it can form the nitride cyanogen molecule ((CN)2), similar to diatomic halides. Other
uncommon oxides are carbon suboxide (C3O2),[62] the unstable dicarbon monoxide (C2O),
[63][64]
carbon trioxide (CO3),[65][66] cyclopentanepentone (C5O5)[67] cyclohexanehexone
(C6O6),[67] and mellitic anhydride (C12O9).
With reactive metals, such as tungsten, carbon forms either carbides (C4–), or acetylides
(C2−
2) to form alloys with high melting points. These anions are also associated with methane
and acetylene, both very weak acids. With an electronegativity of 2.5, carbon prefers to
form covalent bonds. A few carbides are covalent lattices, like carborundum (SiC), which
resembles diamond.
Organometallic compounds
Organometallic compounds by definition contain at least one carbon-metal bond. A wide
range of such compounds exist; major classes include simple alkyl-metal compounds (for
example, tetraethyllead), η2-alkene compounds (for example, Zeise's salt), and η3-allyl
compounds (for example, allylpalladium chloride dimer); metallocenes containing
cyclopentadienyl ligands (for example, ferrocene); and transition metal carbene
complexes. Many metal carbonyls exist (for example, tetracarbonylnickel); some workers
consider the carbon monoxide ligand to be purely inorganic, and not organometallic.
While carbon is understood to exclusively form four bonds, an interesting compound
containing an octahedral hexacoordinated carbon atom has been reported. The cation of
the compound is [(Ph3PAu)6C]2+. This phenomenon has been attributed to the
aurophilicity of the gold ligands.
History and etymology
The English name carbon comes from the Latin carbo for coal and charcoal, whence also
comes the French charbon, meaning charcoal. In German, Dutch and Danish, the names
for carbon are Kohlenstoff, koolstof and kulstof respectively, all literally meaning coal-
substance.
Carbon was discovered in prehistory and was known in the forms of soot and charcoal to
the earliest human civilizations. Diamonds were known probably as early as 2500 BCE in
China, while carbon in the form of charcoal was made around Roman times by the same
chemistry as it is today, by heating wood in a pyramid covered with clay to exclude air.
In 1722, René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur demonstrated that iron was transformed
into steel through the absorption of some substance, now known to be carbon. In 1772,
Antoine Lavoisier showed that diamonds are a form of carbon; when he burned samples
of charcoal and diamond and found that neither produced any water and that both
released the same amount of carbon dioxide per gram. In 1779, Carl Wilhelm Scheele
showed that graphite, which had been thought of as a form of lead, was instead identical
with charcoal but with a small admixture of iron, and that it gave "aerial acid" (his name
for carbon dioxide) when oxidized with nitric acid. In 1786, the French scientists Claude
Louis Berthollet, Gaspard Monge and C. A. Vandermonde confirmed that graphite was
mostly carbon by oxidizing it in oxygen in much the same way Lavoisier had done with
diamond. Some iron again was left, which the French scientists thought was necessary to
the graphite structure. However, in their publication they proposed the name carbone
(Latin carbonum) for the element in graphite which was given off as a gas upon burning
graphite. Antoine Lavoisier then listed carbon as an element in his 1789 textbook.
A new allotrope of carbon, fullerene, that was discovered in 1985 includes nanostructured
forms such as buckyballs and [Link] discoverers – Robert Curl, Harold Kroto
and Richard Smalley – received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996. The resulting
renewed interest in new forms lead to the discovery of further exotic allotropes, including
glassy carbon, and the realization that "amorphous carbon" is not strictly amorphous.
Production
Graphite
Commercially viable natural deposits of graphite occur in many parts of the world, but
the most important sources economically are in China, India, Brazil and North Korea.
Graphite deposits are of metamorphic origin, found in association with quartz, mica and
feldspars in schists, gneisses and metamorphosed sandstones and limestone as lenses or
veins, sometimes of a meter or more in thickness. Deposits of graphite in Borrowdale,
Cumberland, England were at first of sufficient size and purity that, until the 19th
century, pencils were made simply by sawing blocks of natural graphite into strips before
encasing the strips in wood. Today, smaller deposits of graphite are obtained by crushing
the parent rock and floating the lighter graphite out on water.
There are three types of natural graphite—amorphous, flake or crystalline flake, and vein
or lump. Amorphous graphite is the lowest quality and most abundant. Contrary to
science, in industry "amorphous" refers to very small crystal size rather than complete
lack of crystal structure. Amorphous is used for lower value graphite products and is the
lowest priced graphite. Large amorphous graphite deposits are found in China, Europe,
Mexico and the United States. Flake graphite is less common and of higher quality than
amorphous; it occurs as separate plates that crystallized in metamorphic rock. Flake
graphite can be four times the price of amorphous. Good quality flakes can be processed
into expandable graphite for many uses, such as flame retardants. The foremost deposits
are found in Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany and Madagascar. Vein or lump
graphite is the rarest, most valuable, and highest quality type of natural graphite. It occurs
in veins along intrusive contacts in solid lumps, and it is only commercially mined in Sri
Lanka.
According to the USGS, world production of natural graphite was 1.1 million tonnes in
2010, to which China contributed 800,00 t, India 130,000 t, Brazil 76,000 t, North Korea
30,000 t and Canada 25,000 t. No natural graphite was reported mined in the United
States, but 118,000 t of synthetic graphite with an estimated value of $998 million was
produced in 2009.
Diamond
The diamond supply chain is controlled by a limited number of powerful businesses, and
is also highly concentrated in a small number of locations around the world (see figure).
Only a very small fraction of the diamond ore consists of actual diamonds. The ore is
crushed, during which care has to be taken in order to prevent larger diamonds from
being destroyed in this process and subsequently the particles are sorted by density.
Today, diamonds are located in the diamond-rich density fraction with the help of X-ray
fluorescence, after which the final sorting steps are done by hand. Before the use of X-
rays became commonplace, the separation was done with grease belts; diamonds have a
stronger tendency to stick to grease than the other minerals in the ore.
Historically diamonds were known to be found only in alluvial deposits in southern
[Link] led the world in diamond production from the time of their discovery in
approximately the 9th century BCE to the mid-18th century AD, but the commercial
potential of these sources had been exhausted by the late 18th century and at that time
India was eclipsed by Brazil where the first non-Indian diamonds were found in 1725.
Diamond production of primary deposits (kimberlites and lamproites) only started in the
1870s after the discovery of the Diamond fields in South Africa. Production has increased
over time and now an accumulated total of 4.5 billion carats have been mined since that
date. Interestingly 20% of that amount has been mined in the last 5 years alone and
during the last ten years 9 new mines have started production while 4 more are waiting to
be opened soon. Most of these mines are located in Canada, Zimbabwe, Angola, and one
in Russia.
In the United States, diamonds have been found in Arkansas, Colorado and Montana. In
2004, a startling discovery of a microscopic diamond in the United States led to the
January 2008 bulk-sampling of kimberlite pipes in a remote part of Montana.
Today, most commercially viable diamond deposits are in Russia, Botswana, Australia
and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2005, Russia produced almost one-fifth of the
global diamond output, reports the British Geological Survey. Australia has the richest
diamantiferous pipe with production reaching peak levels of 42 metric tons (41 long tons;
46 short tons) per year in the [Link] are also commercial deposits being actively
mined in the Northwest Territories of Canada, Siberia (mostly in Yakutia territory; for
example, Mir pipe and Udachnaya pipe), Brazil, and in Northern and Western Australia.
Applications
Carbon is essential to all known living systems, and without it life as we know it could
not exist (see alternative biochemistry). The major economic use of carbon other than
food and wood is in the form of hydrocarbons, most notably the fossil fuel methane gas
and crude oil (petroleum). Crude oil is used by the petrochemical industry to produce,
amongst other things, gasoline and kerosene, through a distillation process, in refineries.
Cellulose is a natural, carbon-containing polymer produced by plants in the form of
cotton, linen, and hemp. Cellulose is mainly used for maintaining structure in plants.
Commercially valuable carbon polymers of animal origin include wool, cashmere and
silk. Plastics are made from synthetic carbon polymers, often with oxygen and nitrogen
atoms included at regular intervals in the main polymer chain. The raw materials for
many of these synthetic substances come from crude oil.
The uses of carbon and its compounds are extremely varied. It can form alloys with iron,
of which the most common is carbon steel. Graphite is combined with clays to form the
'lead' used in pencils used for writing and drawing. It is also used as a lubricant and a
pigment, as a molding material in glass manufacture, in electrodes for dry batteries and in
electroplating and electroforming, in brushes for electric motors and as a neutron
moderator in nuclear reactors.
Charcoal is used as a drawing material in artwork, for grilling, and in many other uses
including iron smelting. Wood, coal and oil are used as fuel for production of energy and
space heating. Gem quality diamond is used in jewelry, and Industrial diamonds are used
in drilling, cutting and polishing tools for machining metals and stone. Plastics are made
from fossil hydrocarbons, and carbon fiber, made by pyrolysis of synthetic polyester
fibers is used to reinforce plastics to form advanced, lightweight composite materials.
Carbon fiber is made by pyrolysis of extruded and stretched filaments of polyacrylonitrile
(PAN) and other organic substances. The crystallographic structure and mechanical
properties of the fiber depend on the type of starting material, and on the subsequent
processing. Carbon fibers made from PAN have structure resembling narrow filaments of
graphite, but thermal processing may re-order the structure into a continuous rolled sheet.
The result is fibers with higher specific tensile strength than steel.[91]
Carbon black is used as the black pigment in printing ink, artist's oil paint and water
colours, carbon paper, automotive finishes, India ink and laser printer toner. Carbon black
is also used as a filler in rubber products such as tyres and in plastic compounds.
Activated charcoal is used as an absorbent and adsorbent in filter material in applications
as diverse as gas masks, water purification and kitchen extractor hoods and in medicine
to absorb toxins, poisons, or gases from the digestive system. Carbon is used in chemical
reduction at high temperatures. Coke is used to reduce iron ore into iron. Case hardening
of steel is achieved by heating finished steel components in carbon powder. Carbides of
silicon, tungsten, boron and titanium, are among the hardest known materials, and are
used as abrasives in cutting and grinding tools. Carbon compounds make up most of the
materials used in clothing, such as natural and synthetic textiles and leather, and almost
all of the interior surfaces in the built environment other than glass, stone and metal.
Diamonds
The diamond industry can be broadly separated into two basically distinct categories: one
dealing with gem-grade diamonds and another for industrial-grade diamonds. While a
large trade in both types of diamonds exists, the two markets act in dramatically different
ways.
A large trade in gem-grade diamonds exists. Unlike precious metals such as gold or
platinum, gem diamonds do not trade as a commodity: there is a substantial mark-up in
the sale of diamonds, and there is not a very active market for resale of diamonds.
The market for industrial-grade diamonds operates much differently from its gem-grade
counterpart. Industrial diamonds are valued mostly for their hardness and heat
conductivity, making many of the gemological characteristics of diamond, including
clarity and color, mostly irrelevant. This helps explain why 80% of mined diamonds
(equal to about 100 million carats or 20 tonnes annually), unsuitable for use as gemstones
and known as bort, are destined for industrial use. In addition to mined diamonds,
synthetic diamonds found industrial applications almost immediately after their invention
in the 1950s; another 3 billion carats (600 tonnes) of synthetic diamond is produced
annually for industrial use. The dominant industrial use of diamond is in cutting, drilling,
grinding, and polishing. Most uses of diamonds in these technologies do not require large
diamonds; in fact, most diamonds that are gem-quality except for their small size, can
find an industrial use. Diamonds are embedded in drill tips or saw blades, or ground into
a powder for use in grinding and polishing applications. Specialized applications include
use in laboratories as containment for high pressure experiments (see diamond anvil cell),
high-performance bearings, and limited use in specialized windows. With the continuing
advances being made in the production of synthetic diamonds, future applications are
beginning to become feasible. Garnering much excitement is the possible use of diamond
as a semiconductor suitable to build microchips from, or the use of diamond as a heat
sink in electronics.
Precautions
Pure carbon has extremely low toxicity to humans and can be handled and even ingested
safely in the form of graphite or charcoal. It is resistant to dissolution or chemical attack,
even in the acidic contents of the digestive tract, for example. Consequently once it enters
into the body's tissues it is likely to remain there indefinitely. Carbon black was probably
one of the first pigments to be used for tattooing, and Ötzi the Iceman was found to have
carbon tattoos that survived during his life and for 5200 years after his death. However,
inhalation of coal dust or soot (carbon black) in large quantities can be dangerous,
irritating lung tissues and causing the congestive lung disease coalworker's
pneumoconiosis. Similarly, diamond dust used as an abrasive can do harm if ingested or
inhaled. Microparticles of carbon are produced in diesel engine exhaust fumes, and may
accumulate in the [Link] these examples, the harmful effects may result from
contamination of the carbon particles, with organic chemicals or heavy metals for
example, rather than from the carbon itself.
Carbon generally has low toxicity to almost all life on Earth; however, to some creatures
it can still be toxic – for instance, carbon nanoparticles are a deadly toxins to Drosophila.
Carbon may also burn vigorously and brightly in the presence of air at high temperatures,
as in the Windscale fire, which was caused by sudden release of stored Wigner energy in
the graphite core. Large accumulations of coal, which have remained inert for hundreds
of millions of years in the absence of oxygen, may spontaneously combust when exposed
to air, for example in coal mine waste tips.
The great variety of carbon compounds include such lethal poisons as tetrodotoxin, the
lectin ricin from seeds of the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, cyanide (CN−) and
carbon monoxide; and such essentials to life as glucose and protein.