AmSkulChemistry

Blog Post How does the structure of the giant covalent compound help us to explain their properties? Giant covalent structure The majority of covalent structures have fixed number of atoms in a discrete molecule. A covalent structure is held together by strong covalent bonds but have a weaker intermolecular force between them. While a giant covalent structure contains a lot of non-metal atoms, the atoms are arranged in a giant 3 dimensional lattice shape with different layers. The main example of giant covalent structures are Diamond and Silicon. Diamond Diamond is mainly seen as piece of luxury. Diamond has a bond angle of 109.5 o .However, its structure is made out of carbon atoms that are strongly bonded by covalent bonds in a tetrahedral structure. As a result diamond as a high melting and boiling point because there is more energy needed to breakdown the atoms in a diamond structure. Diamond also, is also a bad electricity conductor. In a diamond structure there’s ...

Diamond  Diamond is one of the  allotropes (different forms of an element in the same physical state) of carbon, its structure is made up purely of carbon atoms bonded by strong covalent bonds. Each carbon atom is covalently bonded to four other carbonatoms in a tetrahedralarrangement with a bond angle of 109.5°.                  Diamond has a strong covalent structure, which results in it being a hard substance with a very high melting and boiling point. Diamond is also a poor electrical conductor,as it has no delocalised elcetrons within its structure.

Carbon has three different allotropes: diamond, graphite and C60 fullerene. Graphite is very similar to diamond but the structure of the atom in each affect the chemical and physical properties of each allotropes. Graphite has a high melting point, in order to melt it you have break the covalent bonds within the structure. Graphite is made up of layers of carbon atoms, the layers can slide over each other, very soft. This means that graphite is soft and dull in appearance.  Since the layers of graphite can slip easily, it makes graphite an excellent lubricant, as seen in the layers of the pencil. The sheets of carbon are held together due to Van der Waals bonds, as the delocalized electrons move around, very large temporary dipoles are set up which will generate opposite dipoles in the sheets above and below, thus throughout the whole graphite. Graphite has delocalized electrons between its layer, it can conduct electricity very well.  The chemical structure of graphite is...

Carbon nanotube's revolution Chemists felt there was nothing more to learn about carbon, until t he late 1950s,  when a new allotrope of carbon was discovered.  Then years after years, the research continued until today where this technology can be used in  nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science. Here is how a carbon nanotube should look like. Something that made the carbon nanotube interesting is that the nanotubes are shaped like a cylinder. The composition is that every carbon atoms is linked in a hexagonal shape, with each carbon atom bonded to three other carbon atoms. Carbon nanotubes have diameters as small as 1 nm and lengths up to several centimeters and it has exceptional material properties, such as very high electrical and thermal conductivity, strength , stiffness, and toughness.  This makes the carbon nanotube dense but small, due to this property, construction companies and even  NASA is com...

Graphite is a naturally occurring allotrope of Carbon. It is classified as the most stable allotrope under STP and its atoms are arranged in a hexagonal structure. Graphite has a very similar composition to that of diamond, but they have completely different properties and structures. Graphite is very soft and is used mainly in manufacturing and for being known as the “lead” in pencils. Graphite itself can come in many different forms. There is flake graphite, chunks of graphite, and it can be trapped in different substances such as marble and metamorphic rocks.  Graphite is an interesting allotrope because of the way the carbon atoms are positioned in the network covalent structure. Graphite is made up of many single layers of Carbon atoms that are off-centered from each other. This is what makes writing with pencils so easy. The graphite layers slide right off of each other because of the weak London Dispersion Forces between layers. This differs from other Carbon allotropes like...