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Importance of carbon in chemistry
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CARBON
Carbon, an element discovered before history itself, is one of the most abundant elements in the universe. It can be found in the sun, the stars, comets, and the atmospheres of most planets. There are close to ten million known carbon compounds, many thousands of which are vital to the basis of life itself (WWW 1).
Carbon occurs in many forms in nature. One of its purest forms is diamond. Diamond is the hardest substance known on earth. Although diamonds found in nature are colorless and transparent, when combined with other elements its color can range from pastels to black. Diamond is a poor conductor of heat and electricity. Until 1955 the only sources of diamond were found in deposits of volcanic origin. Since then scientists have found ways to make diamond from graphite and other synthetic materials. Diamonds of true gem quality are not made in this way (Beggott 3-4).
Graphite is another form of carbon. It occurs as a mineral in nature, but it can be made artificially from amorphous carbon. One of the main uses for graphite is for its lubricating qualities. Another is for the "lead" in pencils. Graphite is used as a heat resistant material and an electricity conductor. It is also used in nuclear reactors as a lubricator (Kinoshita 119-127).
Amorphous carbon is a deep black powder that occurs in nature as a component of coal. It may be obtained artificially from almost any organic substance by heating the substance to very high temperatures without air. Using this method, coke is produced from coal, and charcoal is produced from wood. Amorphous carbon is the most reactive form of carbon. Because amorphous carbon burns easily in air, it is used as a combustion fuel. The most important uses for amorphous carbon are as a filler for rubber and as a black pigment in paint (WWW 2).
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 non-reactive and metallic, such as titanium and niobium (Beggott 4).
Carbon compounds containing nonmetals are usually gases or liquids with low boiling points. Carbon monoxide, a gas, is odorless, colorless, and tasteless. It forms during the incomplete combustion of carbon (Kinoshita 215-223)....
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... and are finally combined with nitrogen compounds to form protein substances, which are then used to build tissues (WWW 2).
Although protein substances may pass from organism to organism, eventually these too are oxidized and form carbon dioxide and water as cells wear out and are broken down, or as the organisms die. In either case, a new set of organisms, ranging from fungi to the large scavengers, use the waste products or tissues for food, digesting and oxidizing the substances for energy release (WWW 1).
At various times in the Earth's history, some plant and animal tissues have been protected by erosion and sedimentation from the natural agents of decomposition and converted into substances such as peat, lignite, petroleum, and coal. The carbon cycle, temporarily interrupted in this manner, is completed as fuels are burned, and carbon dioxide and water are again added to the atmosphere for reuse by living things, and the solar energy stored by photosynthesis ages ago is released (Kinoshita 273-275).
Almost everything around us today has some connection with carbon or a carbon compound. Carbon is in every living organism. Without carbon life would not exist as we know it.
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is a colorless gas, which was first discovered in 1577 by Van Helmont who detected it in the products of both fermentation and charcoal burning. CO2 is used in solid, liquid, and gas forms in a variety of industrial processes. These include: beverage carbonation, dry ice, welding and chemicals manufacturing. It is produced by the combustion of all carbonaceous fuels and can be recovered in an abundance of ways. It is widely used today as a by-product of synthetic ammonia production, fermentation, and from flue gases by absorption process. CO2 is also a product of animal metabolism and is important in the life cycles of plants and animals. It is present in the atmosphere only in small quantities (.03% by vol.)
So why can we see the color of carbon stars, but not that of most other celestial objects? Because their light is both bright and concentrated into a point rather than being spread out like nebulae and galaxies. Aim binoculars or a small telescope at a carbon star and you’ll see its color even more prominently. That’s because the scope will gather much more light than your eye and will help stimulate your color receptors.
Anabolism builds up molecules similar to what can be found in food. It builds up, for example, carbohydrates and proteins. Like catabolism, anabolism also occurs in three stages. The first stage of anabolism creates the parts needed to create the molecules.
The meaning of equality has been expanded since the founding of America when Thomas Jefferson stated in the Declaration of Independence that “…all men are created equal…” However, when he used the word “men” he was specifically referring to property-owning males. Ironically, throughout his life, Jefferson owned hundreds of African American slaves yet in multiple of his writings on American injustices during the Revolution he vilified the fact that the British were sponsoring slave trade to the colonies. Jefferson himself valued slaves and but did not necessarily wanted them to have the equality of a free man. Certain objects constructed Thomas Jefferson’s idea of “men” during the enlightenment time period such as
When people burn fossil fuels to accumulate and produce energy a substance called carbon is produced. Carbon is released into the air in a form known as carbon dioxide. Carbon moves throughout the biosphere on the planet as it is recycled and reused. Carbon exists in the earth’s atmosphere in two common forms which are methane and carbon monoxide. These gases absorb and retain heat in a process known as the greenhouse effect. The Planets natural greenhouse effect makes life possible by regulating our temperature. It turns out that adding too much to the greenhouse effect can have horrible consequences on the environment. Each year, five and a half billion tons of carbon is released by burning fossil fuels and of that three billion tons enters the atmosphere. The remaining carbon usually gets absorbed by the oceans.
Carbon fibers were discovered in the late 1800s by Thomas Edison. The early lightbulbs Edison created used the carbon fibers as filaments. These carbon fibers used to create the early lightbulbs had a substantial tolerance to heat, but they lacked the tensile strength of modern carbon fibers. Edison used cellulose-based materials, such as cotton or bamboo, to make his carbon fibers. He used a method called “pyrolysis” to cook the bamboo at high temperatures in a controlled atmosphere to carbonize bamboo filaments, making them fire-resistant and capable of enduring intense heat needed for luminescence.
Oxygen Atomic number8Atomic weight15.9994Melting point-218.4oC (-361.1oF) Boiling point-183.0oC (-297.4oF) Density (1 atom, 0oC) 1.429 g/lValence2electronic config.2-6 or 1s22s22p4.Oxygen is one of the must important factors that made it possible for life to exist in this planet. Oxygen is also one of the elements must found in earth. Oxygen can be found in in metals, water, and even the one thin that protects us from the powerful sunrays. Oxygen is a very unstable element, which makes it easy to make compounds with other elements creating different kinds of solids and liquids. Oxygen is found in the air as O2, and found in the ozone as O3. Oxygen is essential to all planets’ life.
Eighteen percent of our body weight is made up of carbon. Carbon atoms make up important molecules in our bodies such as proteins, DNA, RNA, sugars, and fats. These molecules are called macromolecules. Carbon bonding to itself results in a wide variety of organic compounds, which means that organic compounds are carbon-based carbons. Most matter in living organisms that is not water is made of organic compounds. Nearly everything that is touched is organic. Four main classes of organic compounds that are needed for life are carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.
A Diamond is one of the two natural minerals that are produced from carbon. The other mineral is Graphite. Even though both of these minerals are produced from the same element ,carbon, they have totally different characteristics. One of the most obvious difference is that Diamond is hard and Graphite is soft. The Diamond is considered to be the most hardest substance found in nature. It scores a perfect ten in hardness. Because of its hardness a tiny Diamond is used as a cutting and drilling tool in industry. Even the Greeks called the Diamond “adamas” which means unconquerable. Diamonds also conducts heat better than any other mineral .
Carbon is one of the basic elements of matter (Bush 1230-1231). The name carbon comes from the Latin word "carbo" meaning charcoal.Carbon is the sixth most abundant element (Gangson). More than 1,000,000 compounds are made from carbon(Carbon (C)). "The Element Carbon is defined as a naturally abundant non-metallic element that occurs in many inorganic and in all organic compounds, exists freely as graphite and diamond and as a constituent of coal, limestone, and petroleum, and is capable of chemical self-bonding to form an enormous number of chemically, biologically, and commercially important molecules." Carbon is used in diamonds, petroleum oil, radiocarbon dating, smoke detectors, kerosine, gasoline, carbon fiber. (Alcin).
Carbon monoxide is a poisonous, colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that can be burn with a pale-blue flame that can be produced when carbon burns with insufficient air. Carbon monoxide is known as a silent killer because of its colorless and odorless and it’s not impossible to detect it. Carbon monoxide is found in different fumes that can be produced anytime that you are burning fuels in cars or trucks, small engines, stoves, grills, fireplaces and etc. It can be
Carbon Monoxide is a colourless and inodorous toxic gas produced through the incomplete combustion of different carbon-based fuels, such as in products and apparatuses motorised by internal combustion engines (Carbon Monoxide Questions and Answers, n.d.), that have failed to convert carbon or carbon-based fuels into carbon dioxide (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014). CO production can also occur naturally when volcanoes erupt, releasing the poisonous gas into the atmosphere. CO is used as an aid to engineer organic and inorganic chemical products (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014), in fuel gas mixtures for heating in metal production, pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing, to reduce ores and make metal carbonyls, and to fabricate and renew catalysts. “High purity CO is also used for electronic and semiconductor applications” (The Linde Group, 2013). Figure 1 shows the general equation for the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons to produce carbon monoxide.
Carbon dioxide is commonly found as a gas and is never a liquid. It sublimes to a solid known as 'dry ice' which is used as a substitute for normal ice as it is a lot colder and doesn't melt.
...ill form a string, and the tRNA molecules will be released into the cell. When this string of amino acids is completed, it is called a protein. Some proteins provide structure in living things (such as the protein in muscle tissue), while others can promote certain chemical reactions in cells (such as the breakdown of pectin in tomato cell walls).