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UPPCS Chemistry Gap Sheet: Carbon Forms and Organic Basics.
UPPCS has asked 20 of these. 3 have not been asked yet. Lock the first list, then read the second: it holds what UPPCS has not used yet.
First, the concept
Carbon forms four covalent bonds and can join to itself in long chains. Different arrangements of carbon atoms produce allotropes with very different hardness and electrical properties.
A functional group controls many organic properties. Alcohols contain a hydroxyl group; carboxylic acids contain a carboxyl group. Organic does not automatically mean natural, safe or edible.
✅ Already asked (20)
Carbon structures
- Diamond · Three-dimensional carbon network; very hard and generally an electrical insulator.
- Graphite · Layered carbon; conducts electricity and is used in pencil leads.
- Graphite stability · More thermodynamically stable than diamond at ordinary pressure and temperature.
- Graphene · Single atomic layer of carbon in a hexagonal network.
- Buckminsterfullerene · C₆₀ cage with pentagons and hexagons; not a fluorine polymer.
- Carbon nanotubes · Tube-shaped carbon nanostructures related to rolled graphene sheets.
- Activated charcoal · High surface area gives strong adsorption; not the same as absorption.
- Animal charcoal · Bone charcoal has been used to decolourise sugar solutions.
- Catenation · Carbon atoms bond to one another to form chains and rings.
Familiar organic substances
- Methanol · CH₃OH; methyl alcohol or wood spirit; toxic.
- Ethanol · C₂H₅OH; ethyl alcohol; obtainable by sugar fermentation.
- Ethylene glycol · C₂H₆O₂; used as an antifreeze; toxic if swallowed.
- Glycerol · C₃H₈O₃; a three-hydroxyl alcohol used in nitroglycerin manufacture.
- Acetone · C₃H₆O; a ketone used as a solvent in some nail-polish removers.
- Glucose · C₆H₁₂O₆; a monosaccharide.
- Sucrose · C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁; table sugar made of glucose and fructose units.
- Lactose · Milk sugar; a disaccharide, not the acid responsible for sour milk.
- Phenols and flavonoids · Important classes of compounds present in tulsi.
- Ketone group · Carbonyl group between two carbon groups; acetone is an example.
- Isomerism · Same molecular formula but different arrangement of atoms.
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Familiar organic substances: 3
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⚠️ Graphite conducts electricity; diamond usually does not. Graphene is carbon, not an alloy.
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