Giant Covalent Compounds Flashcards
What are diamond and graphite both made from?
Carbon atoms.
What is another name for diamond and graphite?
Allotropes of carbon.
What is an isotope?
Atoms of the same element.
What is an allotrope?
Atoms of the same element, but different forms.
Why is graphite used in pencil’s?
Carbon atoms are arranged in layers, there are weak forces between each layer, this means that the layers can slide over each other and this makes graphite soft.
Graphite turns into a gas at 3730 degrees, explain why it has such a high melting point?
Graphite has strong covalent bonds between atoms in each layer meaning lots of energy is needed to break all bonds.
What is diamond?
Giant covalent lattice.
Why are diamonds very hard?
All the atoms are held together by strong covalent bonds within the giant molecular lattice.
Why is diamond not a conductor?
Each carbon atom has 4 outer electrons, all of the outer electrons form covalent bonds to other atoms meaning there are no free electrons to carry the charge.
