Carbon

Chapter 2

Carbon

Isotopes of Carbon

Carbon has three naturally occurring isotopes: carbon-12 constitutes 98.89 percent of all carbon atoms and serves as the standard for the atomic mass scale; carbon-13 is the only magnetic isotope, which makes it very important for structural studies of compounds containing carbon. Carbon-14 is produced by cosmic ray bombardment of nitrogen. It is radioactive with a half-life of 5,760 years. The amount of carbon-14 remaining in historical artifacts can be used to estimate their age.

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Carbon is found free in nature in three allotropic forms: amorphous, graphite, diamond. A forth form is known as white carbon. Graphite is the softest; diamond is the hardest. Graphite exists in two forms, Alpha and Beta, both are identical in properties except for structure” crystal”  The beta form is 30% rhombohedra. The alpha form is synthetic and contains the hexagonal structure. White carbon forms at above -2550K as transparent bifrigent crystals. Entropy plays a major roll in the formation of C₆₀ – which seems to stand the law of entropy on it’s head.

 Bucky balls or fullerenes consist of 60 or 70 carbon atoms linked together and can withstand great pressure and trap foreign atoms inside the network of carbon capable of magnetism and superconductivity and the potential as a non-liner optical material. Fullerenes can maintain superconductive at temperatures as high as 45K and has 15 isotopes. Carbon 14 falls under radiation regulatory guide lines (5715 years) low-level waste. The radioactive components of waste may emit alpha, beta, gamma and in some cases neutrons.

Carbon is unique among the elements in the vast number of compounds it can form. Close to ten million known forms exist. A brittle form of carbon is known as glassy carbon. It has good thermal stability and structurally impermeable to both gas and liquids. Its randomized structure makes it useful in ultra-high technology application. Carbon atoms can spontaneously link themselves together into long molecular chains and form extremely complex molecules such as amino-acids, proteins, DNA called Chemical evolution.

Diamonds will phosphoresce when exposed to radium, polonium, or actinium. The stone has a unique relationship with energy. It amplifies the energy of whatever it comes in contact with. White light is the perfect balance of all colors. It is an ideal state in which all the components work together to produce energy in its purest state. Diamond refracts all colors without diluting of filtering them.

Anthropic principle. It is a triple-alpha reaction in carbon. First combine two alpha particles to make a beryllium nucleus and then add a third alpha particle to form a carbon nucleus. Carbon has a state of energy just above the energies of beryllium and helium. Which causes a resonance (enhanced interaction rate) with the second step and is regarded as the first confirmed anthropic prediction? The anthropic arguments are post-hac, the anthropic principles does not predict exact values for the constants, only the order of magnitude between them. Carbon→life. Anthropic coincidences reflect the existence of the “beneficent being” (micro-organisms’) with specific intentions (proteins, DNA, etc.) Participatory anthropic principle is motivated by the fineness of the coincidences that allows life to exist in the cosmos. The quantized masses of different varieties of living material is 1 Pg = 10 ¹⁵ gm (the mass of a large mountain) the size mass within living things are limited to relatively small dimensions and masses. Complexity exists in their motion not there structure. As a structure grows in volume the strength grows they break due to compression or bending moment stresses, when they exceed the strength of intermolecular bonds. The rate of heat generation grows in proportion to their volume but the ability to keep cool depends on surface area which grows. There are infinite number of possible structures stretching up volume – calibrated by capacity for storing information the diagonal, wither there is mathematical principles governing the existence and stability of complexity is an open question. They exhibit a number of characteristics like, self-organization, non-linear feedback, and local teleology, making them more than the sum of their parts. Knowledge of the ultimate laws of nature is of no help, because complex structures are the outcome of the laws of nature that do not posses the same symmetries as the laws themselves. The underlying symmetries are broken in the outcome. Biologists believe spontaneous evolution of organized complexity requires the presence of carbon atoms. Complexity has other atomic foundations only they require catalysis in the form of carbon-based complexity. Local properties of the universe like density, temperature, matter, anti-matter balance can vary from place to place and is possible for the constants of nature or the number of dimensions of space to be random variables, according to current theories of high energy physics. Attempts to develop a quantum cosmological model have uncovered the possibility that the constants of nature may predict the values but will they be affected by the quantum statistics of the space-time fabric of the universe. The necessary conditions for the evolution of organized complexity in the universe are dependent upon a large number of coincidences between the values of different constants. If the topological structure of the universe is a crenellated structure with a network of wormholes (10 ^-33 connecting it to itself and to other extended regions of space-time. The values of the observed constants of nature on each of the large regions of space-time may be determined quantum statistically by the network of wormholes connections. Even if those constants had their values determined initially by the unique “theory of everything” those values would be shifted so that the observed values given by a calculable quantum probability distribution would differ. The anthropic principles are not interested in the most probable value of a constant but in the conditional probability of the constant taking a value that subsequently permits living observers to evolve. This may be very different to the unconditional “most probable” value. The anthropic cosmological principle, the weak form, the observed values of all physical and cosmological quantities are not equally probable, but take on values restricted by requirements that there exist sites of carbon-based life has evolved and the requirement that the universe be old enough to have already done so. The strong form, the universe must have those properties which allow life to develop within it at some stage in its history. The final strong anthropic principle is intelligent information-processing must come into existence in the universe and once it comes into existence, it will never die out.

  

Tetrahedral Carbon

Three dimensional structures of organic compounds have optical activity. A molecule in which 4 different atoms or groups of atoms are connected to a carbon atom can exist in 2 different forms that are mirror images of one another, called 2 different configurations of the molecule, when ever this occurs there will be optical activity. This means when polarized light passes through them the plane of polarization is rotated. Optical activity thus arises when a carbon atom is attached to 4 different groups, referred to as an asymmetric carbon atom. One form of the molecule will rotate the plane of polarization in one direction, while the mirror-image form will rotate it in the opposite direction. e=2.71828  Ǻ=1 ten-billionth of a meter.

The average temperature of radiation 2.736 K (helium only exists near radioactive substances which produce it as it disintegrates. Helium has low density and floats away and is highly inert, it forms  no compounds).

The fission processes, 1μ = 931.5MeV, μ = the atomic mass unit, C¹² (carbon -12) of the carbon atom is 12μ. 1 atom mass unit corresponds to an energy of 931.5 million electron volts (MeV) a decrease in mass of 0.0053μ will produce 4.9 MeV of energy or 0.0292 μ = 27.20 MeV.

Johannes Kepler “To be a scientist is to think God’s thoughts after Him.”

Carbon atoms can bond instantly to any matter that comes close. This electrostatic promiscuity makes carbon central to the products, processes, and molecules that we call life. In nature carbon atoms can spontaneously link themselves into geodesic spheres. There exist other, linear, non-spherical types of fullerene; they form tiny hollow cylinders with outside diameters of only one nanometer. They exhibit properties that are contradictory to present understanding or laws of physics. Aligned in certain ways their atoms conduct electricity dc effectively as copper. Aligned in a slightly different way they are semiconductors. CN’s (carbon nanotubes) the range of properties open the door to computational devices measured in nanometers. At nonoscales you don’t need a cascade of countless electrons to make a counting device flop or change states. A nanoscale device will flop when a single electron is fed into it. Or a single photon  if you want nano computers, not run hot but slow as with old fashion electricity, but by cool, fast, efficient light. Carbon nanotubes have another striking property, structural efficiency, or strength per unit mass, but will explode in the presence of oxygen when hot. A mirror is reflective because at the nanoscale the metal coating configures it’s electrons as on electron gas. A modern microchip generates 10 watts of heat per square centimeter when operating.

Ben Bova (1988) “life is, chemically speaking, a molecule that can reproduce itself out of simpler building materials. That is the difference between living creatures and non-living things.”