Why Carbon is a Wonder Element?

Written by: Awake Scientists

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“No element is more essential to life than CARBON”, says the book Natures Building Blocks. The Unique characteristics of carbon enables it to bond with itself and many other chemical elements, thus forming millions of compounds, more of which are constantly being discovered or synthesized.

Carbon is formed by the fusion of three helium nuclei, which scientists believe occurs inside stars called red giants. For the helium to combine, however, certain conditions must be exactly right.

As the examples here show, carbon atoms can also combine to form various shapes, including chains, pyramids, rings, sheets, and tubes. Carbon truly is a wonder element!

Some of the examples includes –

1. DIAMOND

Carbon atoms form pyramids, called tetrahedrons, making the structure extremely rigid and making diamond the hardest naturally occurring substance known. A perfect diamond is essentially a single molecule of carbon atoms.

Diamond

2. GRAPHITE

Tightly bonded carbon atoms are set out in loosely bonded layers that can slide away from one another like sheets of paper on a stack. Because of these characteristics, graphite is both a fine lubricant and a key compound in lead pencils.

Graphite

3. GRAPHENE

This refers to a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal mesh, or lattice. Graphene has a tensile strength many times that of steel. A pencil trace may have small amounts of graphene in single or multiple layers.

Graphene

4. FULLERENES

These hollow molecules of carbon comes in shape that include microscopic balls and tubes called nanotubes. They are measured in nanometers, or billionths of a meter.

Fullerenes

5. CRUDE OIL

Crude oil also called Petroleum (from Latin: petra: "rock" + oleum: "oil" is a naturally occurring, yellow-to-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earth's surface, which is commonly refined into various types of fuels. Components of petroleum are separated using a technique called fractional distillation. The primary constituent of crude oil is Carbon.

crude oil

6. LIVING ORGANISIMS

The many cells that make up plants, animals, and humans are built on a framework of carbon – an element found in carbohydrates, fats, and amino acids.

Living Organisms

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