Carbon
...he cores of most dry cell batteries, among other things. Graphite, one of the softest materials known, is a form of carbon that is primarily used as a lubricant. Although commonly called lead, the black material used in pencils is actually graphite. Diamond, the third naturally occurring form of carbon, is one of the hardest substances known. Although naturally occurring diamond is typically used for jewelry, most commercial quality diamonds are artificially produced. A fourth allotrope of carbon, known as white carbon, was produced in 1969. It is a transparent material that can split a single beam of light into two beams, a property known as birefringence. Very little is known about this form of carbon. Carbon as graphite is used in fishing rods, golf clubs, tent poles, and composite parts of formula one cars. Also carbon is many times used in fuel, and also in charcoal and coal. There are two kinds of carbon compounds. The first is inorganic. Inorganic compounds are binary compounds of carbon with metals or metal carbides. They have properties ranging from reactive and salt like; found in metals such as sodium, magnesium, and aluminum, to an un-reactive and metallic, such as titanium and niobium. Carbon compounds containing nonmetals are usually gases or liquids with low boiling points. There are nearly ten million known carbon compounds and an entire branch of chemistry, known as organic chemistry, is devoted to their study. Many carbon compounds are essential for life as we know it. Some of the most common carbon compounds are: carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon disulfide (CS2), chloroform (CHCl3), carbon tetrachloride (CCl4), methane (CH4), ethylene (C2H4), acetylene (C2H2), benzene (C6H6), ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH) and acetic acid (CH3COOH). Carbon monoxide, a gas, is odorless, colorless, and tasteless. It forms during the incomplete combustion of carbon (Kinoshita 215-223). It is highly toxic to animals because it inhibits the transport of oxygen in the blood by hemoglobin. Carbon dioxide is a colorless, almost odorless gas that is formed by the combustion of carbon. It is a product that results from respiration in most living organisms and is used by plants as a source of carbon. Frozen carbon dioxide, known as dry ice, is used as a refrigerant. Fluorocarbons, such as Freon, are used as refrigerants (Kinoshita 225-226). Organic compounds are those compounds that occur in nature. The simplest organic compounds consist of only carbon and hydrogen, the hydrocarbons. The state of matter for organic compounds depends on how many carbons are contained in it. If a compound has up to four carbons it is a gas, if it has up to 20 carbons it is a liquid, and if it has more than 20 carbons it is a solid (Kinoshita 230-237). As mentioned in the last paragraph, Carbon has many compounds and their uses change from each compound to the next. The first compound is Carbon Dioxide(CO2), it is one of the gases in our atmosphere. Commercially, CO2 finds uses as a refrigerant (dry ice is solid CO2), in beverage carbonation, and in fire extinguishers. Second is Methane(CH4), Methane is synthesized commercially by the distillation of bituminous coal and by heating a mixture of carbon and hydrogen. In the chemical industry, methane is a raw material for the manufacture of methanol (CH3OH), formaldehyde (CH2O), nitromethane (CH3NO2), chloroform (CH3Cl...