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Diamond, the hardest natural material, and graphite, the soft grey stuff in pencils, are both pure carbon. The difference is how the atoms are linked: a rigid three-dimensional framework in diamond, and flat sheets that slide over each other in graphite.

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Diamond and graphite are allotropes: different forms of the same element. In diamond, each carbon atom is locked to four neighbours in a rigid three-dimensional framework, which is why diamond is so hard. In graphite, each atom bonds to three neighbours in flat sheets. The sheets hold on to each other only weakly and slide apart easily, which is why a pencil leaves a grey trail on paper. Graphite conducts electricity; diamond does not. Most natural diamonds formed 150 to 250 km down in Earth's mantle, under great heat and pressure. Graphene is a single sheet of graphite, just one atom thick. It was first isolated in 2004 at the University of Manchester by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who peeled flakes off graphite with ordinary sticky tape, and it won them the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Türkçe oku
Doğadaki en sert madde olan elmas da, kurşun kalemlerdeki yumuşak gri grafit de saf karbondur. Fark, atomların birbirine nasıl bağlandığındadır: Elmasta atomlar sağlam, üç boyutlu bir çatı oluşturur; grafitte ise birbirinin üzerinden kayan düz katmanlar hâlinde dizilir.

Elmas ve grafit, aynı elementin farklı biçimleri, yani allotroplarıdır. Elmasta her karbon atomu dört komşusuna sıkıca bağlanır ve ortaya sağlam, üç boyutlu bir çatı çıkar; elmasın bu kadar sert olmasının nedeni budur. Grafitte ise her atom üç komşusuyla birlikte düz katmanlar oluşturur. Katmanlar birbirine zayıfça tutunduğu için kolayca kayar; kurşun kalemin kâğıtta gri bir iz bırakması da bundandır. Grafit elektriği iletir, elmas iletmez. Doğal elmasların çoğu yerin 150-250 km altında, mantoda, büyük sıcaklık ve basınç altında oluşmuştur. Grafen, grafitin tek atom kalınlığındaki tek bir katmanıdır. Grafeni ilk kez 2004'te Manchester Üniversitesi'nde Andre Geim ile Konstantin Novoselov, grafitten sıradan bir selobantla ince pullar soyarak elde etti; bu buluş ikiliye 2010 Nobel Fizik Ödülü'nü getirdi.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Allotropes of carbon
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