Pure Carbon
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Carbon is a non-metal* element with an atomic number 6. It has many usages and it is widely available in nature. It is used in writing in the form of graphite and in jewellery as diamonds are pure carbon. Coal, another form of carbon is used in factories as when it is burned it produces high amounts of energy like electricity, however it does a lot of damage on the environment.
Carbon is surprisingly rare on earth. Its molar (atomic) concentration in earth's crust is about 350 parts per million, the 14th most abundant element. In the universe, carbon ranks 4th, behind hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. Its relative scarcity in the earth results from carbon's reaction with oxygen in the forming solar system's protoplanetary disc. Both CO and CO2 are volatile, so were driven out of that portion of the disc in which the earth was forming.
Despite earth's relative depletion in carbon, the element is quite common in the planet. Much of it is found in carbonate (CO3-2) minerals. It's chemistry is even more in evidence in spaces between or above rocks - and in the eyeballs looking at those rocks. Not the least significant of those substances which are built around carbon are plastics, without which computers would be very expensive to make.
- Carbon is chemically a non-metal. However, one allotrope, graphite, is a decent conductor of electricity. A second, diamond, does not conduct - but has a smallee band-gap energy than true non-conductors which makes it attractive as a high-temperature semiconductor.