2006-09-10 09:01:32 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
The term "pure substance" means there is only one type of atom present in the specimen. Oxygen gas (O2), which is made of di-atomic molecules (2 atoms each) is a pure substance that is a gas, while carbon dioxide (CO2) is not pure, containing both carbon and oxygen. Pure iron is a solid metal where iron oxide (FeO3) is not.
Pure carbon can exist in essentially 3 forms. It used to be thought that there were only 2. The first is DIAMOND which is a covalently linked crystal of solid carbon. The second is GRAPHITE which is formed of sheets of carbon laid out in a lattice. The third one is very very interesting, and has been named "buckminsterfullerene"!
Buckminster Fuller was a physical and mathematical scientist of the 20th century. He was a truly amazing genius, and I don't throw that term around loosely. One of the things that Dr. Fuller did was to design something called the "Geodesic dome" based on his work that centered on the geometric structure called a "tetrahedron".
Buckminsterfullerene is a carbon compound formed of 60 carbon atoms that have bonded together in the sheet-like configuration (similar to graphite), except the sheet is bent into a sphere. There are actually quite a few "fullerenes" which are tube shaped or oblong solids.
2006-09-10 09:20:25 · answer #1 · answered by bellydoc 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Graphite only consists of a single element, carbon - elements can exist in a number of molecular forms (called allotropes). Carbon has a few - graphite and diamond, and recently a 60-atom soccer-ball shaped molecule called a "buckminsterfullerene" or "buckyballs". These have been used to make long, ultrasmall "tubes" of carbon called "carbon nanotubes".
2006-09-10 16:10:39 · answer #2 · answered by astazangasta 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Remember that graphite is a form of carbon (along with diamond and 3D carbon structures like bucky balls). It contains only carbon atoms (in the case of graphite, they are arranged in little hexagons, and the hexagons make up "sheet" that extend in the horizontal direction.
2006-09-10 16:08:47 · answer #3 · answered by tillmas 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
carbon graphite is considered a pure substance as it is only made up of only 1 element which is carbon only.
2006-09-11 05:05:57 · answer #4 · answered by sugar_guy84 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
erm... because it is? Graphite is one of about 4 forms of carbon. There's sootlike, unstructured carbon, graphite, diamond, and fullerine, a geodesic form of carbon. But they are all pure carbon.
2006-09-10 16:09:41 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi. Carbon is a very versatile element and comes in many forms one of which is sheets of atoms (graphite), crystalline (diamond), and all the new fullerenes.
2006-09-10 16:07:26 · answer #6 · answered by Cirric 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
becuase it only contains one type of molecule and isnt a mixture of different bonds.
2006-09-10 16:03:20 · answer #7 · answered by michaeln_2006 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋