Why can graphite do pencil lead?

Release time:

2023-09-28 16:55

First, it is black; second, it is soft and one of the softest minerals, graphite is one of the softest minerals of carbon, and its uses include making pencil leads and lubricants. Gently scratched on the paper, leaving a mark. If you look at it under a magnifying glass, the pencil is made up of very small graphite particles. The hardness of ore is an important index to identify the type of ore. Scientists will be the hard and soft degree of ore is divided into ten levels: graphite, talc is the most soft, can use nails to carve out marks on it, their hardness is 1; steel hardness is 4; granite hardness is 6 to 7; the hardness of the hardest material diamond is 10.

Graphite and diamond are two brothers in the carbon family of chemical elements, both composed of the same carbon atoms. However, graphite is black and soft, but diamond is crystal clear and hard. The two brothers are called "soft brother" and "hard brother", and their temperament is really very different. Originally, in graphite, carbon atoms are arranged layer by layer, carbon atoms in the same layer hand in hand, closely linked; the combination between the layer and the layer is loose, like a screw poker, gently push, between the card and the card on the slide, scattered on the paper, leaving a speckle of ink marks.

The carbon atoms in the diamond are like the steel bars of the iron tower, which are tightly linked in all directions. It is very difficult to shake it and make it change its shape. Therefore, the diamond is hard and strong, won the "king of hardness" title. Like diamond and graphite, the composition is the same chemical elements, appearance and temper but very different substances, chemists call them "allotropes". As you may remember, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, the same chemical element phosphorus, are very different in nature. They are "allotropes" of phosphorus ". In addition to graphite and diamond, there is also an amorphous carbon in the allotrope of carbon, such as soot. Like graphite, it is also a good helper for us to learn culture. For example, brush ink is made by suspending tobacco or carbon black in water with a colloidal substance dissolved in it.

Key words:

Pencil

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