Carbon’s allotropes: Graphite and its use

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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 a repetition of carbon atoms in a hexagonal form layered network structure, since it’s an allotrope of it.

Here is the chemical structure of graphite: covalent bond between the carbon atoms and the Van der Waals forces keeping the layers together.


Work cited:
Graphite.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 May 2018, simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphite.


https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Inorganic_Chemistry/Map%3A_Inorganic_Chemistry_(Housecroft)/14%3A_The_Group_14_Elements/14.04%3A_Allotropes_of_Carbon/14.4A%3A_Graphite_and_Diamond_-_Structure_and_Properties
“GCSE Chemistry (Single Science) - How Do Bonding and Structure Affect Properties of Materials? - OCR 21C - Revision 2.” BBC News, BBC, www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/z8kgqhv/revision/2.


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