October 22, 2004 wasn’t a particularly special day for Andre Geim and his colleague Kostyz Novoselov. Previously, a student had tried to separate graphite into ten or even one hundred layers but only succeeded in obtaining a specimen of one thousand layers. Then Geim had the brilliant idea of using Scotch tape to peel off individual layers of graphite. Geim and Kostyz took pieces of tape and manually separated the graphite until one layer remained (Lucibella 2). After hours of work and several pieces of tape with thin pieces of graphite on them, the final step was ready (Fuente). The tape was dissolved in a solution, leaving behind a thin flake on the surface of the solution. A substance previously unknown to mankind was created (Lucibella 2). This amazing material was named graphene. It is a sheet of atoms that can be picked up (Sheriff). Surprisingly, it resembles a honeycomb; the crystal lattice is composed solely of hexagons (Berger). Graphene is highly versatile, it has many interesting properties and it can be used in various electrical and medical applications.
All forms of carbon can be represented by graphene. Graphite is stacked graphene. Buckyballs (carbon spheres) are just bent graphene. Even the famous carbon nanotubes can be made by rolling graphene into a cylinder (Berger). Basically, no known material compares to graphene. “Graphene has a high specific surface area (2630 square meters per gram), exceptional electrical conductivity (mobility of charge carriers at 200,000 square centimeters per Volt-second), great thermal conductivity (5000 watts per Kelvin-meter), and awesome mechanical strength (Young’s modulus 1100 Gigapascals)” (Shen et al). Graphene conducts heat better than any material, even metal or diamond....
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Carbon is one of the 115 chemical elements discovered on Earth which is part of the nonmetals group with other elements such as nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen. Carbon as an element has good stability, it is very light, very stable, and has many types of forms such as graphite, and coal. Carbon fiber is just another form of carbon, basically has filaments between five to ten micrometers in diameter of pure carbon or at least 90% of carbon. Thousand carbon fibers are twisted together to form a long chain, which can then be used in a variety of raw forms, including yarns, weaves, and braids, which are in turn mixed with synthetic resins to create the carbon fiber as a composite material. Based on different characteristics carbon fibers can be divided into three principals groups: according to carbon fiber tensile modulus, according to precursor fiber materials, and according to final heat
Schlesinger, Mordechay. "Electrochemistry Encyclopedia." Electroplating. Department of Physics, University of Windsor, Sept. 2002. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Nagase, M., Okamoto, Y., Tsuneto, S., Tanimukai, H., Matsuda, Y., Okishiro, N., & … Uejima, E. (2012). A
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Nanotechnology is the manipulation of structures at nano levels. It uses incredibly small materials, devices, and systems to manipulate matter. These structures are measured in nanometers, or one billionth of a meter, and can be used by themselves or as part of larg...
Diamonds earned its original name from the Greek word “adamas” that means "invisible" (Oldershaw, 2005) because it is considered as the most hard mineral that is cannot scratched in with other minerals. In addition, the diamond is a unique jewel of other gems as formed from a single chemical that is carbon. Furthermore, it is doubtful that diamonds actually contain chemicals that are similar to those of Graphite and charcoal. The difference is only in the process of formation where diamonds are crystallized in the form of a cube under the pressure of large earth pressure and high temperatures up to thousands of degrees Celsius. Thus, the bonds of the carbon atoms in diamond are very strong and uniform to produce crystals that ...
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.
LifeGem has been secretive in order to maintain a “competitive edge over competition”. This has created much debate over the methods they use to convert graphite to diamond.
Diamond is made up of carbon. Another form of pure carbon is graphite. Graphite is the stable form of carbon, found at the earth’s surface. Despite the fact that they have identical chemical composition, the two minerals are drastically different. Diamond is the hardest known substance and is usually light colored and transparent, while graphite is greasy, easily powdered, and very dark in color. Diamond is the hardest gem on Mohs’ hardness scale and graphite is the softest. Diamond is very hard because of its dense packing and interlocking atomic arrangement. Graphite, on the other hand, although it is the same element, is more loosely packed and has a six-sided, layered configuration, which makes it soft (Pough, 1991). The differences between graphite and diamonds are accounted for by the conditions in which they are created.
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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 .
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).