diamond

(noun)

a glimmering glass-like mineral that is an allotrope of carbon, in which each carbon atom is bonded to four others with a tetrahedral geometry.

Related Terms

  • covalent network solid
  • carbide
  • allotrope
  • covalent bond

Examples of diamond in the following topics:

  • Allotropes of Carbon

    • Diamond is probably the most well known carbon allotrope.
    • Each carbon atom in a diamond is covalently bonded to four other carbons in a tetrahedron.
    • As a result, diamond exhibits the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any bulk material.
    • Diamonds do not generally react with any chemical reagents, including strong acids and bases.
    • Uses of diamond include cutting, drilling, and grinding; jewelry; and in the semi-conductor industry.
  • Covalent Crystals

    • Diamond is also an allotrope of carbon.
    • Diamond cannot be melted; above 1700 °C it is converted to graphite, the more stable form of carbon.
    • The diamond unit cell is face-centered cubic and contains eight carbon atoms.
    • Its structure is very much like that of diamond, with every other carbon replaced by silicon.
    • Cubic boron nitride is the second-hardest material, after diamond.
  • Properties of Carbon

    • Interestingly, carbon allotropes span a wide range of physical properties: diamond is the hardest naturally occurring substance, and graphite is one of the softest known substances.
    • Diamond is transparent, the ultimate abrasive, and can be an electrical insulator and thermal conductor.
    • Allotropes of carbon are not limited to diamond and graphite, but also include buckyballs (fullerenes), amorphous carbon, glassy carbon, carbon nanofoam, nanotubes, and others.
    • Some allotropes of carbon: a) diamond, b) graphite, c) lonsdaleite, d–f) fullerenes (C60, C540, C70); g) amorphous carbon, h) carbon nanotube.
  • Hess's Law

    • Turning graphite into diamond requires extremely high temperatures and pressures, and therefore is impractical in a laboratory setting.
  • Standard Entropy

    • Although both diamond and graphite are types of carbon, their entropies differ significantly.
    • Graphite, which is built up of loosely-bound stacks of hexagonal sheets, soaks up thermal energy twice as well as diamond.
    • The carbon atoms in diamond are tightly locked in a three-dimensional lattice, preventing them from vibrating around their equilibrium positions.
  • Fused Benzen Ring Compounds

    • Another well-characterized carbon allotrope is diamond.
    • Diamond is an extended array of sp3 hybridized carbon atoms; whereas, graphite consists of overlapping sheets of sp2 hybridized carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern.
  • Borates: Boron-Oxygen Compounds

    • Two experimental studies have proposed the existence of diamond-like and graphite-like B2O, as for boron nitride and carbon solids.
  • Amorphous Solids

    • Some examples include sodium chloride, ice, metals, and diamonds.
  • The Study of Chemistry

    • How can soot and diamond be so different in appearance yet so chemically similar?
  • Variation of Physical Properties Within a Group

    • For example, pure carbon can exist as diamond, which has a very high melting point, or as graphite, whose melting point is still high but much lower than that of diamond.
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