Can anybody please explain for me how carbon comnbining with itself makes diamond and also graphite.?

Question

Also can any body advise any web pages i can look at that will tell me things like how it combines why? Molecular and structural formula, at A level.
Thanks

Answer 1

The primary structure of graphite is a two dimensional sheet composed of 6 membered rings all attached to one another in a honeycomb pattern. The layers stack up like pages in a book. There are no actual chemical bonds between the layers, and they can slip past one another. Because of this, graphite is one of the softest minerals known.

Diamond is the crystalline form of carbon. Each carbon atom is linked to 4 other atoms in a three dimensional arrangement. This forms a structure more like sponge rubber and the atoms can't slip past one another. This makes diamond the hardest of all minerals.

Diamonds are the result of a phenomenon known as supersaturation. A liquid will ordinarily only dissolve a given amount of a solid, but under certain conditions, even more of the solid can be dissolved. This then makes the growth of crystals very likley to happen if conditions change in the liquid.

Diamonds form when coal or other carbon bearing minerals dissolve in pools of liquid iron over 10 miles beneith the earth's surface. This is a region of semi liquid rock under enormous pressure. If the liquid iron becomes supersaturated with carbon, carbon crystals then begin to form. Ordinarily this process takes millions of years and "young" diamonds are yellow in color. This is because nitrogen atoms are trapped in the carbon matrix. Over time, the nitrogen will work its way out of the matrix, leaving a "white" diamond. Besides yellow diamonds, there are also brown, black and green diamonds. The rarest diamonds are red or pink.

Diamonds come to the earth's surface when volcanos bring the semi-liquid rock to the surface in the form of magma. This then weathers and exposes the diamonds, which often are carried away by rivers and form "placer" deposits in stream banks. Diamond mining is usually done by boring into the solid rock shaft of a dormant volcano. The rock is crushed and diamonds are removed because they have the peculiar habit of sticking tightly to tar paper.

Diamonds can also be manufactured industrially. Iron is supersaturated with carbon under high temperatures and pressures. The iron is solidified and can be removed with acids, leaving tiny diamonds behind. These diamonds are black in color and not suitable for gemstones, but set into steel bits, they are very important cutting tools. Oil well drill bits have three diamond encrusted grinding surfaces. Reciently, the Russians have been successfully producing small, gem quality diamonds using a giant mechanical press capable of proding millions of pounds of pressure.

Answer 2

To get an idea of the diamond structure, look at the structure of adamantane. Imagine that instead of hydrogen atoms, there are more carbon atoms going on and on in this regular three-dimensional structure forever.

To get an idea of the graphite structure, look at benzene. Then imagine that you have a vast sheet of hexagons, each with alternating single- and double-bonds going on and on like a sheet of fiendish bathroom tile. This is why pencilswrite. The graphite sheets in pencil "lead" spread out on the paper and make black marks.

Answer 3

it's a different chemical form of carbon
graphite is a 2-D arangement of carbon

graphite consists of, basically, benzene rings fused (bound )to other benzene rings at every carbon,

it consists of this sheet of carbon , the sheets are not strongly bound to each other and can be seperated under sheer conditions (as in a pencil)


diamond is a 3-D arrangement much like ice. the bounds are arranged in a tetrahedral geometry, this is a very low entropy , high enthalpy configuration