Carbonite Diamontdocx
Carbonite Diamontdocx
Carbonite Diamontdocx
2.1 The Element Carbon The word carbon is derived from the Latin
"carbo", which to the Romans meant charcoal (or ember). In the modern
world, carbon is, of course, much more than charcoal. From carbon come
the highest strength fibers, one of the best lubricants (graphite),
the strongest crystal and hardest material (diamond), an essentially
non-crystalline product (vitreous carbon) , one of the best gas
adsorbers (activated charcoal), and one of the best helium gas
barriers (vitreous carbon). A great deal is yet to be learned and new
forms of carbon are still being discovered such as the fullerene
molecules and the hexagonal polytypes of diamond. These very diverse
materials, with such large differences in properties, all have the
same building block—the element carbon—which is the thread that ties
the various constituents of this book and gives it unity.