Carbon is an element which is of immense significance to us in both its elemental form and in the combined form. Most of what surround you will some compounds of carbon, including your family members and pets! The list given below illustrates the importance of carbon compounds in our daily life:
- Foods [starch, sugar, fats, vitamins, proteins]
- Fuels [wood, coal, alcohol, petrol]
- Household and commercial articles [paper, soap, cosmetics, oils, paints]
- Textile fabrics [cotton, wool, silk, linen, rayon, nylon]
- Drugs and disinfectants [penicillin, quinine, aspirin, sulpha drugs]
- Poisons [opium, strychnine]
- Perfumes [vanillin, camphor]
- Explosives [nitroglycerine, dynamite, picric acid, TNT]
- Dyes [indigo, congo red, malachite green]
- War gases [mustard gas, chloropicrin, lewisite]
The list above consists of compounds having plant or animal origin like sugar, starch, proteins, acetic acid, urea etc. These are classified as organic compounds and their chemistry is known as "Organic Chemistry". Modern Organic Chemistry comprises the chemistry of carbon compounds existing naturally, as well some that are manmade. Much of organic chemistry is devoted to studying compounds of carbon and hydrogen i.e., hydrocarbons and their derivatives.
Carbon compounds are of a second type which can be prepared from minerals such as oxygen, halogens and metals. These are "inorganic" and result in compounds like carbon dioxide, sodium chloride, copper sulphate, potassium nitrate, sodium carbonate etc. Their chemistry is referred to as "Inorganic Chemistry".The significance of carbon seems to be immense to life in spite of only a small amount of carbon being available in nature. The earth's crust has only 0.02% carbon in the form of minerals (like petroleum, coal, carbonates and hydrogen carbonates) and the atmosphere comprises of only 0.03% of carbon dioxide. Despite this discrepancy, the properties of carbon allow it to link up with innumerable substances. Let us investigate what makes the element carbon so unique.
