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LoginDiamond - Electrical Conductivity
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I need to recruit some of your help here, pressingly. I'm looking for information and DIAGRAMS depicting why diamonds are not able to conduct electricity. The information should simply consists of 1 or 2 sentences, preferably captions. The most crucial thing I need is diagrams since I can do the explanations myself.
Thanks.
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Moderator'A' & 'O' Levels Chemistry & Biology Ex-MOE Teacher Tutor
602 posts since May '05-
Image hosted by and property of http://ibchem.com/IB/ibfiles/bonding/bon_img/diamond.gif
Explanation : Notice that for diamond, all of the 4 valence electrons (2s2 2p2) of every carbon atom are involved in tetrahedral bonding (in the form of 4 equivalent sp3 hybrid orbitals), and hence there are no delocalized valence electrons left or available for conduction of electricity, as is the case of carbon's other allotrope, graphite (in which the carbons are sp2 hybridized and each carbon atom has one valence electron not involved in bonding and that can be delocalized to conduct electricity along, but not perpendicular to, the plane of the graphite layers).
3D rotating image of Graphite :
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Graphite_stereo_animation.gif
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Originally posted by UltimaOnline:
Image hosted by and property of http://ibchem.com/IB/ibfiles/bonding/bon_img/diamond.gif
Explanation : Notice that for diamond, all of the 4 valence electrons (2s2 2p2) of every carbon atom are involved in tetrahedral bonding (in the form of 4 equivalent sp3 hybrid orbitals), and hence there are no delocalized valence electrons left or available for conduction of electricity, as is the case of carbon's other allotrope, graphite (in which the carbons are sp2 hybridized and each carbon atom has one valence electron not involved in bonding and that can be delocalized to conduct electricity along, but not perpendicular to, the plane of the graphite layers).
3D rotating image of Graphite :
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Graphite_stereo_animation.gif
THANKS SO MUCH!
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