Carbon and Its Compounds

CARBON AND ITS COMPOUNDS
The name carbon is derived from the Latin word carbo which means coal. This is because
carbon is the main constituent of coal. The earth crust contains only 0.02% carbon in the form
of minerals. All the living things including us, plants and animals, are made up of carbon
based compounds which are called organic compounds.
BONDING IN CARBON – THE COVALENT BOND

(i) It could gain four electrons forming C4– anion. But it would be difficult for the nucleus
with six protons to hold on to ten electrons, that is, four extra electrons.
(ii) It could lose four electrons forming C4+ cation. But it would require a large amount of
energy to remove four electrons leaving behind a carbon cation with six protons in its nucleus
holding on to just two electrons.
Carbon overcomes this problem by sharing its valence electrons with other atoms of carbon
or with atoms of other elements.
SELF COMBINATION
The property of self combination of carbon atoms to form a long chain is useful to us because
it gives rise to an extremely large number of carbon compounds. The formation of strong
bonds by carbon atoms among themselves and with other elements makes the carbon
compounds exceptionally stable. There are more than 5 million carbon compounds.
VERSATILE NATURE OF CARBON:
● Tetravalency
● Catenation
● Compact size
● Multiple bond formation.
OCCURRENCE OF CARBON
1. Free state: carbon occurs in nature mainly in two forms diamond and graphite.
Another naturally occurring form of carbon called buckminsterfullerene has been
discovered recently.
2. In the combined state, carbon occurs in nature in the form of compounds such as
carbon dioxide gas in air, carbonates, fossil fuels like coal, petroleum and natural gas,
organic compounds like carbohydrates, fats and proteins, wood, cotton and wool etc..
ALLOTROPES OF CARBON
Allotropy: The various physical forms in which an element can exist.
The element carbon occurs in different forms in nature with widely varying physical
properties. Both diamond and graphite are formed by carbon atoms, the difference lies in the
manner in which the carbon atoms are bonded to one another.
1. Graphite is a greyish-black opaque substance. Graphite is lighter than diamond.
Graphite is soft and slippery to touch. It conducts electricity. In graphite, each carbon
atom is bonded to three other carbon atoms in the same plane giving a hexagonal
array. One of these bonds is a double-bond, and thus the valency of carbon is
satisfied. Graphite structure is formed by the hexagonal arrays being placed in layers
one above the other.
2. Diamond - a colourless transparent substance having extraordinary brilliance. It's
heavy and extremely hard. If we burn diamond in oxygen, then only carbon dioxide
gas is formed and nothing is left behind. This shows that it is made up of only carbon.
In diamond, each carbon atom is bonded to four other carbon atoms forming a rigid
three-dimensional structure. Diamonds can be synthesised by subjecting pure carbon
to very high pressure and temperature. These synthetic diamonds are small but are
otherwise indistinguishable from natural diamonds
3. Buckminsterfullerene is the new allotrope of carbon which has been discovered
recently. Fullerenes from another class of carbon allotropes. The first one to be
identified was C-60 which has carbon atoms arranged in the shape of a football. Since
this looked like the geodesic dome designed by the US architect Buckminster Fuller,
the molecule was named fullerene. It contains clusters of 60 carbon atoms joined
together to form spherical molecules. It consists of 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons
interlocked with one another to form the bucky ball like structure.
STRUCTURE OF DIAMOND AND GRAPHITE

● Each carbon atom in the diamond crystal is linked to four other carbon atoms by a
strong covalent bond. The four surrounding carbon atoms are at the four vertices of a
regular tetrahedron. Diamond is a non conductor of electricity. Since there are no
free electrons in a diamond crystal, it does not conduct electricity.
● A graphite crystal consists of layers of carbon atoms or sheets of carbon atoms. Each
carbon atom in a graphite layer is joined to three other carbon atoms by strong
covalent bonds to form flat hexagonal rings. The various layers of carbon atoms in
graphite are held together by weak van der waals forces. quite far apart so that no
covalent bond exists between them. Graphite is a good conductor of electricity. Due
to the presence of free electrons in a graphite crystal, it conducts electricity.
USES OF DIAMOND
1. Diamonds are used in cutting instruments like glass cutters, saw for cutting marble
and in rock drilling equipment.
2. Diamond are used for making jewellery
3. Diamonds can be made artificially by subjecting pure carbon to very high pressure
and temperature.
USES OF GRAPHITE
1. Powdered graphite is used as a lubricant for the fast moving parts of machinery. It can
be used for lubricating those machine parts which operate at very high temperatures.
It can be used as dry lubricant in the form of graphite powder or mixed with
petroleum jelly to form graphite grease.
2. Graphite is used for making carbon electrodes or graphites electrodes in dry cells and
electric arcs.
3. Graphite is used for making the cores of our pencils called pencil leads and black
paints.
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS:
The same non-carbon atom or group of atoms attached to different carbon chains. These
compounds were initially extracted from natural substances and it was thought that these
carbon compounds or organic compounds could only be formed within a living system. That
is, it was postulated that a ‘vital force’ was necessary for their synthesis. Friedrich Wöhler
disproved this in 1828 by preparing urea from ammonium cyanate. But carbon
compounds, except for carbides, oxides of carbon, carbonate and hydrogencarbonate salts
continue to be studied under organic chemistry.
Alkynes
Saturated and Unsaturated Carbon Compounds

In order to arrive at the structure of simple carbon compounds, the first step is to link the
carbon atoms together with a single bond and then use the hydrogen atoms to satisfy the
remaining valencies of carbon. For example, the structure of ethane is arrived in the
following steps
Saturated carbon compounds - A hydrocarbon in which the carbon atoms are connected by
only single bonds is called a saturated hydrocarbon. Alkane is a hydrocarbon in which the
carbon atoms are connected by only single covalent bonds. (there are no double or triple
bonds in an alkane).
Unsaturated carbon compounds - A hydrocarbon in which two carbon atoms are connected
by a double bond or a triple bond is called an unsaturated hydrocarbon.
ISOMERS
The organic compounds having the same molecular formula but different structures are
known as isomers. The compounds with the same molecular formula but different
arrangement of carbon atoms in them are known as isomers.
Let us take another look at butane. If we make the carbon ‘skeleton’ with four carbon atoms,
we see that two different possible ‘skeletons’ are –
CYCLIC HYDROCARBON
In addition to straight and branched carbon chains, some compounds have carbon atoms
arranged in the form of a ring. For example, cyclopropane has the formula C 3H6 and the
following structure
1. Saturated cyclic hydrocarbons are cyclopropane, cyclobutane, cyclopentane,

cyclohexane. The electron dot structure of cyclohexane has been obtained by putting
two electrons dots in place of every single bond in its structural formula.
2. Unsaturated cyclic hydrocarbons are benzene. The electron dots in place of every
single bond and four electron dots in place of every double bond in its structural
formula.
All these carbon compounds which contain only carbon and hydrogen are called
hydrocarbons. Among these, the saturated hydrocarbons are called alkanes. The unsaturated
hydrocarbons which contain one or more double bonds are called alkenes. Those containing
one or more triple bonds are called alkynes.

Carbon and Its Compounds

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Carbon and Its Compounds

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CARBON AND ITS COMPOUNDS

BONDING IN CARBON – THE COVALENT BOND

● Multiple bond formation.

STRUCTURE OF DIAMOND AND GRAPHITE

Saturated and Unsaturated Carbon Compounds

1. Saturated cyclic hydrocarbons are cyclopropane, cyclobutane, cyclopentane,

You might also like