Question

Carbon is the fourth most abundant chemical element in the universe. What are some of the different allotropes (or forms) carbon can be? What different colors can it be and what different bonds can it make? What are your favorite carbon compound(s)?

Please answer in at least 150 words.

Answer 1

There are eight carbon allotropes are found that include:
a)   Diamond
Color: steel gray, white, blue, yellow, orange, red, green, pink to purple, brown, and black. Bond: covalently bonded to 4 other carbon atoms.
b) Graphite

Color: Silver-gray to black.
Bond: Covalently bonded to 3 other carbon atoms.
c) Lonsdaleite

Color: Gray in crystals, pale yellowish to brown in broken fragments.
Bond: Covalent bonded to above and below the ring.
d) C60 or Buckminsterfullerene
Color: deep purple color.
Bond: Each carbon atoms of C60 linked to three other carbon atoms by covalent bonds.
e) C540 fullerene
Color: Black, Brown.
Bond: Covalent bonds.
f) C70 fullerene
Color: reddish brown.
Bond: Covalent bond
g) Amorphous carbon
Color: very pale colors.
Bond: Amorphous carbon does not have defined geometry in its atomic structure
h) single-walled carbon nanotube
Color: black.
Bond: held together by strong covalent bonds.
Favorite carbon compound is diamond