Properties of Carbon

The electron configuration of Carbon is 1S2 2S2 2P2.

Melting point of carbon: 3800 [or 3527 �C (6381 �F)]

Boiling point of Carbon: 4300 [or 4027 �C (7281 �F)] (liquid range: 500 K)

The atomic mass of carbon is 12.011

Diamond, one of the hardest known materials, is made up of carbon atoms. Each of the carbon atoms is in a tetrahedral environment, that is each is bound to four other carbon atoms with all the angles being tetrahedron. Because the symmetry of the space group requires that the carbon atom be located in a special position in the cell, we can simply use the size of the unit cell to accurately determine the length of a carbon-carbon single bond.

Physical properties of carbon

There are three forms of elemental carbon and occur in nature - There are diamond, graphite, and amorphous carbon. And there's the forth form that was found few years ago - Buckmisterfullerene, also known as Bucky Ball. All of them are solids with extremely high melting points and are insoluble in all solvents at ordinary temperatures. The atomic weight of carbon is 12.01115, and it has melting point of 3,550`C and boiling point of 4,827`C. Three forms of carbon are very different. Graphite and Diamond is in crystalline forms while amorphous has no particular geometric arrangement. The physical properties of the three forms differ widely because of the differences in crystalline structure. In diamond, the hardest material known, each atom is linked to four other atoms in a three-dimensional framework, whereas graphite consists of weakly bonded plane layers of atoms that are arranged in hexagons. Amorphous carbon is characterized by a very low degree of crystallinity. Pure amorphous carbon can be obtained by heating purified sugar at 900`C in the absence of air.

Properties of Diamond

Diamond is very rare form of Carbon. Diamonds were formed under immense temperatures and pressures, such as found in pipes leading to ancient volcanoes. The most famous diamond mine, at Kimberley, South Africa, follows an old volcanic pipe for more than two kilometres vertically into the Earth. Diamonds have atoms so tightly bonded together that they are one of the hardest substances known, scoring 10 out of 10 on Moh Scale. Pure diamond is colourless and transparent, and commonly forms a shape like two pyramids base to base (a tetrahedron). Diamonds are built with interlocking carbon atoms with no room for other atoms to form part of the structure, thus making it very unreactive. You can think of Diamond as single huge molecule consisting of nothing but carbon atoms. It has big refractivity (ability to bend light rays), crystal clarity, high dispersion (ability to spread light of different colors apart) which makes it ideal jewelry. It is very hard to scratch diamond, however, it can be cracked. Diamond has specific gravity of 3.52 g/ml

Properties of Graphite

Graphite is black, soft form of Carbon. Graphite is soft, shiny, dark gray or black, has greasy feeling, and is very slippery. It is good conductor of electricity and heat. Graphite is slippery because as you can see on your right, in graphite the carbon atoms are arranged in sheets that are poorly linked to each other. As a result, one sheet of crystals readily slides over another. This property makes it ideal for lubrication for locks and etc. Specific gravity of graphite is 2.25 g/ml