Carbon | EPFL Graph Search

Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?

Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.

Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon makes up about 0.025 percent of Earth's crust. Three isotopes occur naturally, ^12C and ^13C being stable, while ^14C is a radionuclide, decaying with a half-life of about 5,730 years. Carbon is one of the few elements known since antiquity. Carbon is the 15th most abundant element in the Earth's crust, and the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. Carbon's abundance, its unique diversity of organic compounds, and its unusual ability to form polymers at the temperatures commonly encountered on Earth, enables this element to serve as a common element of all known life. It is the second most abundant element in the human body by mass (about 18.5%) after oxygen. The atoms of carbon can bond together in diverse ways, resulting in various allotropes of carbon. Well-known allotropes include graphite, diamond, amorphous carbon, and fullerenes. The physical properties of carbon vary widely with the allotropic form. For example, graphite is opaque and black, while diamond is highly transparent. Graphite is soft enough to form a streak on paper (hence its name, from the Greek verb "γράφειν" which means "to write"), while diamond is the hardest naturally occurring material known. Graphite is a good electrical conductor while diamond has a low electrical conductivity. Under normal conditions, diamond, carbon nanotubes, and graphene have the highest thermal conductivities of all known materials. All carbon allotropes are solids under normal conditions, with graphite being the most thermodynamically stable form at standard temperature and pressure. They are chemically resistant and require high temperature to react even with oxygen. The most common oxidation state of carbon in inorganic compounds is +4, while +2 is found in carbon monoxide and transition metal carbonyl complexes.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related publications (83)

From pulsed-DCMS and HiPIMS to microwave plasma-assisted sputtering: Their influence on the properties of diamond-like carbon films

Aïcha Hessler-Wyser, Johann Michler, Caroline Hain, David Brown, Thomas Nelis

The fabrication of high-hardness non-hydrogenated diamond-like carbon (DLC) via standard magnetron sputtering (MS) is often hindered by the low sputtering yields and ionisation rates of carbon, theref

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2022

Liquid metal infiltration of silicon based alloys into porous carbonaceous materials. Part II: Experimental verification of modelling approaches by infiltration of Si-Zr alloy into idealized microchannels

Ludger Weber, Caroline Hain, Giovanni Bianchi, Alberto Ortona, Manoj Kondibhau Naikade

In this work, the mechanisms leading to the pore closure in reactive melt infiltration (RMI) of carbon by pure silicon and a near eutectic Si-8 at-pct Zr alloy at 1500 and 1700 degrees C under vacuum

ELSEVIER SCI LTD2022

Pretreatment options for micropollutant abatement before aquifer recharge in drinking water production: Assessment of UV/H2O2 and dense membranes

Robin Wünsch

Micropollutants (MP) such as residues of pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals or pesticides can be detected in almost all water resources. Various processes can be used to abate them in drinking wate

EPFL2022

Related people (82)

Basil Duval, David Andrew Barry, Ambrogio Fasoli, Stefano Coda, Jonathan Graves, Olivier Sauter, Anders Meibom, Patrick Blanchard, Duccio Testa, Yves Martin

Related units (5)

Related concepts (728)

Related courses (54)

Related lectures (318)

Related MOOCs (9)

Plasma Physics and Applications [retired]

The first MOOC to teach the basics of plasma physics and its main applications: fusion energy, astrophysical and space plasmas, societal and industrial applications

Plasma Physics: Introduction

Learn the basics of plasma, one of the fundamental states of matter, and the different types of models used to describe it, including fluid and kinetic.

Plasma Physics: Introduction

Learn the basics of plasma, one of the fundamental states of matter, and the different types of models used to describe it, including fluid and kinetic.

Focuses on producing a carbon vertical for the Swiss Solar Boat association.

Covers titanium metallurgy, including production processes, phase diagrams, and interstitial solid solutions, highlighting the technical importance and cost factors.

Explores organic chemistry fundamentals, including properties, reactions, and polymerization.

MSE-101(a): Materials:from chemistry to properties

Ce cours permet l'acquisition des notions essentielles relatives à la structure de la matière, aux équilibres et à la réactivité chimique en liaison avec les propriétés mécaniques, thermiques, électri

CH-110: Advanced general chemistry I

Le cours comporte deux parties. Les bases de la thermodynamique des équilibres et de la cinétique des réactions sont introduites dans l'une d'elles. Les premières notions de chimie quantique sur les é

MSE-431: Physical chemistry of polymeric materials

The student has a basic understanding of the physical and physicochemical principles which result from the chainlike structure of synthetic macromolecules. The student can predict major characteristic

Acetylene

Acetylene (systematic name: ethyne) is the chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in its pure form and thus is usually handled as a solution. Pure acetylene is odorless, but commercial grades usually have a marked odor due to impurities such as divinyl sulfide and phosphine. As an alkyne, acetylene is unsaturated because its two carbon atoms are bonded together in a triple bond.

Oxygen

Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as well as with other compounds. Oxygen is Earth's most abundant element, and after hydrogen and helium, it is the third-most abundant element in the universe. At standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dioxygen, a colorless and odorless diatomic gas with the formula O2.

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, just ahead of oxygen (32.1% and 30.1%, respectively), forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust, being mainly deposited by meteorites in its metallic state, with its ores also being found there.