This document summarizes several allotropes of carbon including diamond, graphite, graphene, buckminsterfullerene, glassy carbon, carbon nanofoam, and lonsdaleite. Diamond is the hardest known mineral and is used industrially for cutting and drilling. Graphite is soft and can conduct electricity along its layers. Graphene is a single layer of graphite with unique properties. Buckminsterfullerene molecules are hollow spheres or tubes of carbon. Glassy carbon is an electrically inert material used for electrodes. Carbon nanofoam is a low-density web of carbon clusters. Lonsdaleite is a rare hexagonal form of diamond sometimes found in meteorites.
11. Graphite Graphite (named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789, from the Greek γράφειν (graphein, "to draw/write", for its use in pencils) is one of the most common allotropes of carbon. Unlike diamond, graphite is an electrical conductor, and can be used, for instance, as the material in the electrodes of an electrical arc lamp. Graphite holds the distinction of being the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Therefore, it is used in thermochemistry as the standard state for defining the heat of formation of carbon compounds. Graphite is able to conduct electricity, due to delocalization of the pi bond electrons above and below the planes of the carbon atoms. These electrons are free to move, so are able to conduct electricity. However, the electricity is only conducted along the plane of the layers. In diamond all four outer electrons of each carbon atom are 'localised' between the atoms in covalent bonding. The movement of electrons is restricted and diamond does not conduct an electric current. In graphite, each carbon atom uses only 3 of its 4 outer energy level electrons in covalently bonding to three other carbon atoms in a plane. Each carbon atom contributes one electron to a delocalised system of electrons that is also a part of the chemical bonding. The delocalised electrons are free to move throughout the plane. For this reason, graphite conducts electricity along the planes of carbon atoms, but does not conduct in a direction at right angles to the plane. Graphite powder is used as a dry lubricant Although it might be thought that this industrially important property is due entirely to the loose interlamellar coupling between sheets in the structure, in fact in a vacuum environment (such as in technologies for use in space), graphite was found to be a very poor lubricant. This fact led to the discovery that graphite's lubricity is due to adsorbed air and water between the layers, unlike other layered dry lubricants such as molybdenum disulfide. Recent studies suggest that an effect called superlubricity can also account for this effect. When a large number of crystallographic defects bind these planes together, graphite loses its lubrication properties and becomes what is known as pyrolytic carbon, a useful material in blood-contacting implants such as prosthetic heart valves. Natural and crystalline graphites are not often used in pure form as structural materials due to their shear-planes, brittleness and inconsistent mechanical properties. In its pure glassy (isotropic) synthetic forms, pyrolytic graphite and carbon fiber graphite is an extremely strong, heat-resistant (to 3000 °C) material, used in reentry shields for missile nosecones, solid rocket engines, high temperature reactors, brake shoes and electric motor brushes. Intumescent or expandable graphites are used in fire seals, fitted around the perimeter of a fire door. During a fire the graphite intumesces (expands and chars) to resist fire penetration and prevent the spread of fumes. A typical start expansion temperature (SET) is between 150 and 300 °C. Density: its specific gravity is 2.3, which makes it lighter than diamond. Effect of heat: it is the most stable allotrope of carbon. At high temperatures and pressures (roughly 2000 °C and 5 GPa), it can be transformed into diamond. At about 700 °C it burns in oxygen forming carbon dioxide. Chemical activity: it is slightly more reactive than diamond. This is because the reactants are able to penetrate between the hexagonal layers of carbon atoms in graphite. It is unaffected by ordinary solvents, dilute acids, or fused alkalis. However, chromic acid oxidises it to carbon dioxide.
12. A single layer of graphite, once thought to be impossible, is called graphene and has extraordinary electrical, thermal, and physical properties. It can be produced by epitaxy (vapor deposition) on an insulating surface or by mechanical exfoliation (repeated peeling). Its applications may include replacing silicon in high-performance electronic devices. Graphene
13. The buckminster-fullerenes, or usually just fullerenes for short, were discovered in 1985 by a team of scientists from Rice University and the University of Sussex, three of whom were awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. They are named for the resemblance of their alliotropic structure to the geodesic structures devised by the scientist and architect Richard Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller. Fullerenes are molecules of varying sizes composed entirely of carbon, which take the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, or tube. As of the early twenty-first century, the chemical and physical properties of fullerenes are still under heavy study, in both pure and applied research labs. In April 2003, fullerenes were under study for potential medicinal use — binding specific antibiotics to the structure to target resistant bacteria and even target certain cancer cells such as melanoma. Buckminster-fullerenes
14. Glassy carbon or vitreous carbon is a class of non-graphitizing carbon widely used as an electrode material in electrochemistry, as well as for high temperature crucibles and as a component of some prosthetic devices. It was first produced by workers at the laboratories ofThe General Electric Company, UK, in the early 1960s, using cellulose as the starting material. A short time later, Japanese workers produced a similar material from phenolic resin. It was first produced by Bernard Redfern in the mid 1950's at the laboratories of The Carborundum Company, Trafford Park, Manchester, UK. He set out to develop a polymer matrix to mirror a diamond structure and discovered a resole (phenolic) resin that would, with special preparation, set without a catalyst. Using this resin the first glassy carbon was produced. Patents were filed some of which were withdrawn in the interests of national security. Original research samples of resin and product exist. The preparation of glassy carbon involves subjecting the organic precursors to a series of heat treatments at temperatures up to 3000oC. Unlike many non-graphitizing carbons, they are impermeable to gases and are chemically extremely inert, especially those prepared at very high temperatures. It has been demonstrated that the rates of oxidation of certain glassy carbons in oxygen, carbon dioxide or water vapour are lower than those of any other carbon. They are also highly resistant to attack by acids. Thus, while normal graphite is reduced to a powder by a mixture of concentrated sulfuric and nitric acids at room temperature, glassy carbon is unaffected by such treatment, even after several months. Glassy carbon
15. Carbon nanofoam is the fifth known allotrope of carbon discovered in 1997 by Andrei V. Rode and co-workers at the Australian National University in Canberra. It consists of a low-density cluster-assembly of carbon atoms strung together in a loose three-dimensional web. Each cluster is about 6 nanometers wide and consists of about 4000 carbon atoms linked in graphite-like sheets that are given negative curvature by the inclusion of heptagons among the regular hexagonal pattern. This is the opposite of what happens in the case of buckminsterfullerenes, in which carbon sheets are given positive curvature by the inclusion of pentagons. The large-scale structure of carbon nanofoam is similar to that of an aerogel, but with 1% of the density of previously produced carbon aerogels - only a few times the density of air at sea level. Unlike carbon aerogels, carbon nanofoam is a poor electrical conductor. Carbon nanofoam
16. Lonsdaleite is a hexagonal allotrope of the carbon allotrope diamond, believed to form from graphite present in meteorites upon their impact to Earth. The great heat and stress of the impact transforms the graphite into diamond, but retains graphite's hexagonal crystal lattice. Hexagonal diamond has also been synthesized in the lab, by compressing and heating graphite either in a static press or using explosives. It can also be produced by the thermal decomposition of a polymer, poly(hydridocarbyne), at atmospheric pressure, under inert gas atmosphere (e.g. argon, nitrogen), starting at temperature 110 °C (230 °F)[4][5]6] Lonsdaleite (hexagonal diamond)
17. The system of carbon allotropes spans an astounding range of extremes, considering that they are all merely structural formations of the same element. Between diamond and graphite: Diamond crystallizes in the cubic system but graphite crystallizes in the hexagonal system. Diamond is clear and transparent, but graphite is black and opaque Diamond is hardest mineral known (10 on the Mohs scale), but graphite is one of the softest (1–2 on Mohs scale). Diamond is the ultimate abrasive, but graphite is soft and is a very good lubricant. Diamond is an excellent electrical insulator, but graphite is a conductor of electricity. Diamond is an excellent thermal conductor, but some forms of graphite are used for thermal insulation (for example heat shields and firebreaks) Despite the hardness of diamonds, the chemical bonds that hold the carbon atoms in diamonds together are actually weaker than those that hold together graphite. The difference is that in diamond, the bonds form an inflexible three-dimensional lattice. In graphite, the atoms are tightly bonded into sheets, but the sheets can slide easily making graphite soft. Linear Acetylenic Carbon (LAC)
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