Discovery date : Prehistoric
Discovered by : - - -
Origin of the name : The name is derived from the Latin ‘carbo’, charcoal.
Allotropes : diamond, graphite, graphene, amorphous, fullerene.
~>CARBON is a chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds.It belongs to group 14 of periodic table.
| FACT BOX | |||
| Group | 14 | Melting point | Sublimes at 3825°C, 6917°F, 4098 K |
| Period | 2 | Boiling point | Sublimes at 3825°C, 6917°F, 4098 K |
| Block | p | Density (g cm−3) | 3.513 (diamond); 2.2 (graphite) |
| Atomic number | 6 | Relative atomic mass | 12.011 |
| State at 20°C | Solid | Key isotopes | 12C, 13C, 14C |
| Electron configuration | [He] 2s22p2 | CAS number | 7440-44-0 |
| ChemSpider ID | 4575370 | ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database | |
Carbon occurs naturally as anthracite (a type of coal), graphite, and diamond. More readily available historically was soot or charcoal. Ultimately these various materials were recognised as forms of the same element. Not surprisingly, diamond posed the greatest difficulty of identification. Naturalist Giuseppe Averani and medic Cipriano Targioni of Florence were the first to discover that diamonds could be destroyed by heating. In 1694 they focussed sunlight on to a diamond using a large magnifying glass and the gem eventually disappeared. Pierre-Joseph Macquer and Godefroy de Villetaneuse repeated the experiment in 1771. Then, in 1796, the English chemist Smithson Tennant finally proved that diamond was just a form of carbon by showing that as it burned it formed only CO2.