Element Carbon, B, Non Metal
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Carbon History
Carbon was discovered in prehistory and was known to the ancients, who manufactured it by burning organic material in insufficient oxygen (making charcoal). The elementary nature of carbon had been discovered by Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier in late 1780-s. The three well-known allotropes of carbon from ancient times are amorphous carbon, graphite, and diamond. From the antiquity graphite, named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789, was known for its use in drawing/writing. However carbon's history is very complex. It was often confused with other substances with similar physical properties, such as molybdenite (molybdenum sulphide) considered as graphite at one time it is also known as black-lead, plumbago, mineral carbon, and mineral black. In 1779 Karl Scheele specified that graphite may be oxidized extracting carbon dioxide. The international name is originated from "carbo" - coal associated with the ancient root "kar", which means heat. The same root is in the Latin word "cremare" which means "to burn".
Carbon Occurrence
The abundance of carbon in the Earth crust is 0.1% of its mass. As the free element it forms allotropes from differing kinds of carbon-carbon bonds, such as in graphite and diamond. Carbon is a major component of very large masses carbonate rock (limestone, dolomite, marble etc.) Coal is the main source of carbon in mineral form, containing up to 95% of carbon in anthracite (94-97% C), and brown coal (64-80% C), bituminous coal (76-95% C), oil shale (56-78% C), petroleum (82-87% C), combustion and natural gases (up to 99% of methane), turf (53-56% C) as well as bitumen etc. As a carbon dioxide carbon is present in the Earth's atmosphere and hydrosphere (approximately 18%). Living organisms consist of 18% carbon. The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged between the biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth through combustion of organic material which oxidizes the carbon it contains, producing carbon dioxide, volcanic eruptions, at the surface of the oceans and so on. Carbon is taken from the troposphere by plants which perform photosynthesis process. Then carbon is released back into the geosphere in many different ways, such as through the decay of animal and plant matter in the soil and, being converted into carbon dioxide if oxygen is present, as CO2 - in atmosphere.
Carbon in vaporized state and in compounds with nitrogen and hydrogen is abundant in the Sun, stars, comets, and in the atmospheres of most planets. It has been found in some stony and iron meteorites.
Carbon has the ability to form long, indefinite chains with interconnecting covalent bonds, primarily in hydrocarbons, which are strong and stable. This property allows carbon to form an infinite number of compounds; in fact, there are more known carbon-containing compounds than all the compounds of the other chemical elements combined except those of hydrogen (because almost all carbon compounds contain hydrogen).
Carbon Neighbours
Modern Periodic Table | |