Allotropes of Carbon

        Now, carbon is one of the common allotropes known in Chemistry, and also in the world around us. For example, if you take diamond, the hardest solid object known to man, is an allotrope of carbon. Diamonds are mostly known for its jewelry, and for its high melting point. A diamond is indeed, a solid state and has the same properties as carbon.  Another allotrope of carbon is graphite. In graphite, the layers are linked together with weak forces by Van de Waal’s forces. Graphite is used for pencil leads, and is also known that it is insoluble in water. This is because there are very weak Van der Waal's attractions between the carbon atoms and the water molecules, whereas the carbon atoms are bonded very tightly to one another. Fullerenes is another allotrope for carbon.  Fullerene is a recently discovered allotrope for carbons, and have very similar properties with graphite, as it is soft and slippery, brittle, electrical insulator, and insoluble in water. The reason why it is insoluble in water is the same as graphite; there are only very weak Van der Waal's attractions between the carbon atoms and the water molecules whereas the carbon atoms are bonded very tightly to one another in the molecules. The reason why fullerenes is soft and slippery is because there are only few covalent bonds holding the molecules together but only weak Vander Waals forces between molecules. Another allotrope for carbon is amorphous carbon, and this is carbon that does not have the crystalline structure. However, the other properties are fairly the same as what carbon contains, and can be said that it is an allotrope of a carbon. On the other hand, glassy carbon is an allotrope that is mainly used in electrochemistry.

        As you can see, in most of carbon’s allotropes, there are Van de Waal’s forces and have similar properties. These properties are mostly the same as what carbon has, and this makes them allotropes of carbon.