Carbon | its Compounds| Classification | Types of carbon

Carbon 

   • Carbon is the third most important element after oxygen and hydrogen, for the existence of life on the earth. The name carbon is derived from the Latin word Carbo meaning coal. 

   • Carbon is non- metallic element represented by the symbol C. It's atomic number is 6 and atomic mass 12. It has 4 electrons in it's outermost orbit, so the valency of carbon is 4.

Electronic Configuration of  Carbon

  It's occurrence

       Carbon it's constitutes about 0.03% of the earth's crust and occurs in the earth's crust in both pure form and on combination with other element in the form of compounds. 

 In free state, it occurs as coal, diamond and graphite.

 

 In combined state, carbon occurs in:

     1)- Atmosphere as carbon dioxide gas (about 0.04% by volume). This carbon is ultimately the source of all our food. Plant manufacturers their own food with the help of carbon dioxide and water by the process of photosynthesis. Animals depends directly or indirectly on the plants for their food. 

2)-  natural gas and petroleum. 

 

3)- Food nutrients like strach, vitamin, fats, proteins, sugar, etc. 

 

4)- Carbonates and bicarbonates such  as chalk, limestone, marble CaCO3, calamine (ZnCO3), washing soda (Na2CO3.10H2O) and baking soda (NaHCO3). 

Classification of Carbon Compounds 

      For the sake of convenience, all compounds are classified into two classes:

     1:- Organic Compounds

     2:- Inorganic Compounds

A few carbon compounds like carbons monoxide (CO2), and the carbonates are examples of organic compounds. 

Food:  protein, fats, carbohydrates,                         vitamins

Clothing:  cotton, silk, nylon, terylene

                             Wool

 Packaging:   wood, paper, Cellophane,                                polythene

Fuels : petrol, diesel, kerosene

Plastics: Polythene, PVC, polystyrene,                          melamine

Others : Perfumes, disinfectants, detergents, dyes, soaps, medicine, etc, Vegetables oils are the  liquid forms of combined carbon. Petroleum is a mixture of carbon compounds found in a liquid state. 

CaCO3 is the formula for all the three substances, chalk, marble and limestone

     

 Allotropy 

     The phenomenon of the existence of an element in more than one structural, form in the same physical state, is called allotropy. The different forms of the same element in the same physical state are called Allotropes. 

   Allotropes have the same  chemical properties but different physical properties. 

Allotropes of Carbon 

    The allotropes of carbon are broadly classified into three types. 

 1:-  Crystalline form :- A crystal is solid- substance whose atoms are arranged in a definite pattern and outwardly expressed by a geometrical form (with plane faces). In the crystalline form of carbon. Because the arrangements of atoms in the crystals of diamond and graphite is different, so their physical properties are different. 

 

2:- Non- crystalline or Amorphous form:-

      The arrangements of carbon atoms in its amorphous allotropes is disorderly or Haphazard . The word amorphous means lacking in form or shape. Accordingly, amorphous Substance do not have any particular shape or structure. Some amorphous forms of carbon are coal, coke, charcoal, lampblack (soot) and gas carbon. The amorphous forms of carbon are usually not pure (except sugar charcoal). Coal occurs in thr nature while the other forms are obtained as the black residue of compounds rich in carbon when they are heated in the absence of air. 

 The amorphous forms of carbon contains nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen and sulphur as impurities. 

3:- Fullerenes :-  Fullerene are a new class of carbon allotropes which were discovered recently. They have been found to exist in intersteller dust as well as in the geological formations of the earth. They are Spheroidal in shape and contain even number of carbon atoms ranging from 60-350 or above. 

Buckminster fullerene is the most stable and was the first to be identified. It contains 60 carbon atoms which are arranged in the shape of a soccer ball (football). This I'd why it is also called bucky ball. It contains 20 six membered rings and 12 five membered rings. The five membered rings are fused only to six- membered rings which implies that no two five-membered rings are fused together. 

 

    

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