Related topics: carbon nanotube , graphene , electronic properties , graphite
Carbon
hideCarbon (pronounced /ˈkɑrbən/) 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 5730 years. Carbon is one of the few elements known since antiquity. The name "carbon" comes from Latin language carbo, coal, and, in some Romance and Slavic languages, the word carbon can refer both to the element and to coal.
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 the allotropic forms are solids under normal conditions but graphite is the most thermodynamically stable.
All forms of carbon are highly stable, requiring 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 one of the least abundant elements in the Earth's crust, but the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. It is present in all known lifeforms, 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.
For more information about Carbon, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with carbon atoms
Scientists Image the 'Anatomy' of a Molecule (w/ Video)
Aug 28, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (44) |
4
(PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, IBM researchers in Zurich, Switzerland, have taken a 3D image of an individual molecule. Using an atomic force microscope, the researchers constructed a "force map" of ...
Carbon nanoballs as data storage units
Sep 01, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (38) |
4
Small, smaller, "nano" data storage! Interest is growing in the use of metallofullerenes - carbon “cages” with embedded metallic compounds - as materials for miniature data storage devices. Researchers at ...
Scientists Produce First Movie of Individual Carbon Atoms in Action (w/Videos)
Mar 31, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (30) |
8
(PhysOrg.com) -- Science fiction fans still have another two months of waiting for the new Star Trek movie, but fans of actual science can feast their eyes now on the first movie ever of carbon atoms moving ...
How Perfect Can Graphene Be?
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Oct 13, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (30) |
5
(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists have investigated the purest graphene to date, and have found that the material possesses unprecedented high electronic quality. The discovery has raised the bar for this relatively ...
Graphene -- the copy beats the original
Jul 17, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (25) |
9
(PhysOrg.com) -- The first artificial graphene has been created at the NEST laboratory of the Italian Institute for the Physics of Matter (INFM-CNR) in Pisa. It is sculpted on the surface of a gallium-arsenide ...
Graphene Yields Secrets to Its Extraordinary Properties
May 14, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (25) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- Applying innovative measurement techniques, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have directly measured the unusual energy ...
Researchers invent new method for graphene growth
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Nov 10, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (23) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- A Cornell research team has invented a simple way to make graphene electrical devices by growing the graphene directly onto a silicon wafer.
New study confirms exotic electric properties of graphene
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Nov 17, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (23) |
1
(PhysOrg.com) -- First, it was the soccer-ball-shaped molecules dubbed buckyballs. Then it was the cylindrically shaped nanotubes. Now, the hottest new material in physics and nanotechnology is graphene: ...
Fujitsu Develops Technology for Low-Temperature Full-Service Direct Formation of Graphene Transistors on Large-Scale Sub
Nov 27, 2009 |
5 / 5 (22) |
4
Fujitsu Laboratories today announced, as a world first, the development of a novel technology for forming graphene transistors directly on the entire surface of large-scale insulating substrates at low temperatures ...
Carbon molecule with a charge could be tomorrow's semiconductor
Sep 08, 2008 |
4.5 / 5 (22) |
0
Virginia Tech chemistry Professor Harry Dorn has developed a new area of fullerene chemistry that may be the backbone for development of molecular semiconductors and quantum computing applications.
Graphite mimics iron's magnetism
Oct 04, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (17) |
1
Researchers of Eindhoven University of Technology and the Radboud University Nijmegen in The Netherlands show for the first time why ordinary graphite is a permanent magnet at room temperature. The results ...
New organic material may speed Internet access
Mar 15, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (16) |
5
The next time an overnight snow begins to fall, take two bricks and place them side by side a few inches apart in your yard.
Scientists create large-area graphene on copper: Faster computers, electronics possible
May 07, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (14) |
1
The creation of large-area graphene using copper may enable the manufacture of new graphene-based devices that meet the scaling requirements of the semiconductor industry, leading to faster computers and electronics, ...
Engineering Carbon for Impressive Hydrogen Storage
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
May 22, 2009 |
4 / 5 (16) |
14
(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Missouri researchers recently showed how carbon nanostructures can be engineered to become excellent media for hydrogen storage, work that may be important for the advancement of hydrogen-energy ...
Researchers Find Better Way To Manufacture Fast Computer Chips
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Mar 31, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (13) |
1
(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineers at Ohio State University are developing a technique for mass producing computer chips made from the same material found in pencils.
