Properties of carbon

Carbon, with the atomic number 6 and the symbol C, is found in Periodic Table Group 14. Carbon is a nonmetal that can be found in nature in the forms of graphite, diamond, or fullerenes.

It has four electrons available to form covalent connections, making it tetravalent. Carbon is the world’s sixth most prevalent element.

How common is carbon in the universe

Carbon, although being extensively dispersed in nature, is not very abundant—it accounts for only approximately 0.025 percent of the Earth’s crust—yet it forms more compounds than all other elements combined.

History of Carbon

Carbon was found in prehistory and was known to the oldest human civilizations in the forms of soot and charcoal.

Carbon is derived from the Latin carbo, which means coal or charcoal.

• René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur proved in 1722 that iron could be turned into steel by the absorption of some material, now known to be carbon.

• Antoine Lavoisier demonstrated in 1772 that diamonds are a kind of carbon by burning samples of charcoal and diamond and discovering that none created any water
  how common is carbon on earth
  how common is carbon 14