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Diamond v graphite
Diamond and graphite are very different materials but are both made out of carbon atoms.
Compare diamond and graphite by cutting up the statements and putting them in the
correct place on the table.
Diamond
Graphite
What does it
look like?
Is it a conductor
or an insulator?
How are the
carbon atoms
bonded?
Density
Does it conduct
electricity?
What is it
used for?
How was it
formed
naturally?
How is it
manufactured?
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Diamond v graphite
2.2 g / cm 3
Yes
3.5 g / cm 3
No
Each atom forms four strong bonds.
The bonds are covalent (atoms share
electrons). There are 100 million
million million carbon atoms in a small
diamond!
Jewellery, oil-well drills, abrasives,
cutting tools
Each atom forms three strong
covalent bonds in the same layer and
one weak bond to an atom in another
layer.
An insulator
An ohmic conductor (in one plane
only)
Pencil ‘lead’, as a lubricant in oil,
furnace linings, electrodes, neutron
moderator in nuclear power stations
Formed in layers (like the layers of an
onion) from carbon atoms in the
magma below the earth’s crust. They
are pushed up within volcanoes to the
surface.
Formed from plants that grew and
died 200 - 300 million years ago. The
plant remains were buried by new
layers of rock which squeezed water
out. As the carbon was pressed
towards the core of the earth it grew
hotter and layers formed.
Made in industry by passing an
electric current through a mixture of
coal and silica.
See-through, colourless, hard crystals
Made in the lab by heating charcoal
to 1650 oC at a pressure of 5 GPa for
several minutes.
Black, smooth, slippery
© www.teachitscience.co.uk 2015
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Diamond v graphite
Teaching notes
Differentiation
Depending on ability give students a table with some of the boxes
already filled in.
Give most able students the table without the statements and ask
them to research and fill in the table themselves.
Add a column for graphene and ask students to research this as
well.
Extension
BBC Bitesize is good starting point for information on the allotropes
of carbon (link available at time of publishing).
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_ocr_gateway/che
mical_economics/nanochemistryrev1.shtml
Answers
What does it
look like?
Is it a conductor
or an insulator?
How are the
carbon atoms
bonded?
Density
Does it conduct
electricity?
Diamond
See-through, colourless, hard
crystals
Graphite
Black, smooth, slippery
An ohmic conductor (in one plane
only)
An insulator
Each atom forms four strong
bonds. The bonds are
covalent (atoms share
electrons). There are 100
million million million carbon
atoms in a small diamond!
3.5 g / cm 3
Each atom forms three strong
covalent bonds in the same layer
and one weak bond to an atom in
another layer.
2.2 g / cm 3
No
Yes
Jewellery, oil-well drills,
abrasives, cutting tools
Pencil ‘lead’, as a lubricant in oil,
furnace linings, electrodes, neutron
moderator in nuclear power stations
How was it
formed
naturally?
Formed in layers (like the
layers of an onion) from
carbon atoms in the magma
below the earth’s crust.
They are pushed up within
volcanoes to the surface.
Formed from plants that grew and
died 200 - 300 million years ago.
The plant remains were buried by
new layers of rock which squeezed
water out. As the carbon was
pressed towards the core of the
earth it grew hotter and layers
formed.
How is it
manufactured?
Made in the lab by heating
charcoal at 1650 oC and 5
GPa for several minutes.
Made in industry by passing an
electric current through a mixture of
coal and silica.
What is it used
for?
© www.teachitscience.co.uk 2015
23739
Page 3 of 3