It s all carbon too, why is diamond transparent and graphite opaque?

A diamond is forever, and a diamond lasts forever. Many friends may be curious, it is also composed of carbon elements, why is diamond transparent, but graphite is black? The reason for this is that their microstructures are different.

The specific reason will be explained by Lao Guo for you.

Carbon is one of the most common elements in nature and one of the most abundant on Earth. For example, the life species such as plants, animals and fungi themselves and the coal, oil, and natural gas formed by the remains of these organisms, and the main component of stone is calcium carbonate, which also has a large amount of carbon.

There are also a lot of transparent substances we encounter in our daily life, such as air, glass, crystal, diamonds, water, some resin materials, etc., which can transmit light, and even some very thin paper can also transmit light. As we can see, the so-called transparency is the phenomenon of light transmission, which can enter from one surface of the substance and penetrate from another surface parallel to this surface.

Diamond can be made into diamond, it can also be said that diamond is diamond, its hardness is very high, is the highest known hardness in nature, its Mohs hardness is 10, and it is also the only natural substance with a Mohs hardness of 10. Graphite, on the other hand, is one of the softest substances in nature, and it is slippery and soft, so it is often used as a lubricant.

The answer is no. First of all, take glass as an example, glass is a transparent substance that we are very common in our daily life, but in fact, we really touch glassIn ordinary applications, that is, a thickness of a few millimeters, 100 millimeters of glass bricks are rare.

In addition to the different hardness, the color of these two things is also very different, the color of graphite is very black, it is pitch black and opaque, but diamond is transparent and has good light transmittance.

Speaking of which, we can't fail to mention graphene, a material, because it has been so popular in recent years. In fact, graphene is also a type of graphite, but it is a thinner type of graphiteEven a thin film consisting of only one layer of carbon atoms has a high light transmittance, after all, there is only one layer of atoms, and its absorption capacity is limited.

Because their structure is different, their internal molecular structure is diverse, so to speak, the appearance is different.

I think it's probably because they're that way themselves, so diamonds are transparent and graphite is opaque.

Because although they are made of the same element, their structure is different, they are different substances.

This phenomenon occurs because they have a different structure and are arranged in a different order.

Because their structure is different, the arrangement of carbon is different, so it behaves differently.

This is mainly because they contain different substances, which is why they are like this.

It must be arranged in a different way, which is why this strange scene is caused.

Because their structure is different, they have different appearances and uses.

Because the structure of graphite is layered, it is very different from the structure of diamond.

The main reason for this is that there are some differences between them.

First of all, diamond and graphite are allotropic bodies, and their atomic arrangements are different, that is, the forces between their atoms and atoms are different.

Secondly, the color of the object we can see depends on the absorption and reflection of light by the object, for example: black is the ability to absorb all visible light is relatively strong; Transparency means that the absorption and reflection ability of light are relatively weak, so the light can penetrate the past without being affected by reflection and absorption.

Graphite and diamond have different colors due to their atomic arrangement that determines their ability to absorb and reflect light.

Because of the different arrangements of carbon atoms, diamond is transparent and hard, and graphite is black and soft.

Because the arrangement of carbon atoms is different.

The carbon atoms of graphite are tightly arranged in the plane, but not between the planes.

The distance between any carbon atom in a diamond and the surrounding atoms is the same.

The 4 carbon atoms are like a regular triangular pyramid.

It's like the chemistry books we studied talked about.

In diamonds, the carbon atoms are arranged in a tetrahedral. Each carbon atom is connected to four other carbon atoms at a distance of meters and a c-c-c bond angle of degrees. It is a strong, rigid three-dimensional structure that forms an infinite network of atoms.

Due to its tetrahedral structure, diamonds behave as an insulator, and their electrical resistance, light transmittance, and chemical inertness are also significant, making them transparent.

At the same time, due to the obvious difference between the internal structure of the diamond and graphite, the diamond has strong hardness, strength and durability, and the density of the diamond is higher than that of graphite (grams per cubic centimeter). Diamonds also exhibit strong resistance to compression, it can scratch all other materials, and is the hardest material known. In addition, diamonds disperse light, which means that the refractive indices of red and ultraviolet light are different (and respectively).

Thus, the diamond acts like a prism that divides the white light into iridescent colors, and its dispersion is the difference). The greater the dispersion, the better the color spectrum obtained. A diamond's "brilliance"** is due to the refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light.

Both are carbon elements, but the arrangement of the carbon atoms inside is different. Diamond, i.e., diamond, is a tetrahedral structure that absorbs very little light and is therefore transparent; Graphite is a layered structure and is black in color.

Because the combination of carbon atoms in different forms produces different properties, diamond is transparent, while graphite is not.

This has a lot to do with the order of the carbon atoms, and the order of the carbon atoms causes a change in morphology.

Because the structure is different, the carbon atoms of diamond exhibit a spatial tetrahedral structure, while graphite is a lamellar structure.

It shows that diamond and graphite have different light transmittance. These two substances are allotropes of the element carbon, the carbon atom of diamond presents a spatial tetrahedral structure, while graphite is a lamellar structure.

Because the internal structure is very different, the nature is different.

There is a gap in their fundamental structural composition.

For graphite, it is a sheet structure, the carbon atoms in the same layer are hybridized with sp2 to form covalent bonds, and each carbon atom is connected to the other three atoms with three covalent bonds, in fact, each layer is infinitely malleable conjugated system, this system can absorb light of various wavelengths, and the light is constantly absorbed and reabsorbed by different layers of graphite in the process of penetrating layers of graphite, so the graphite does not reflect any visible light, that is, black.

Because the structure is not the same. One is a spatial tetrahedron and the other is layered.

Because their carbon structure composition is different.

The reason for this is that their microstructures are different.

The structure determines its physical properties.

Because the way they are structured is different.

When the atoms form crystals.

Incoming electrons no longer move around a single atom of a source, but throughout the crystal (band theory in solid state physics requires that the electron wave function be distributed throughout the crystal). The movement of electrons is determined by the whole crystal, not by one atom.

In short, due to the difference in crystal structure between the two: graphite is a conductor, while diamond is an insulator. The conductor has the property of shielding and absorbing electromagnetic waves (electrons move in the conductor due to the action of electromagnetic fields, which will produce Joule heating, and the macroscopic performance at this time is the absorption of electromagnetic waves), and the light generally cannot penetrate thick graphite.

Insulators, on the other hand, generally do not have a shielding effect, so light energy passes through and appears transparent macroscopically. It's also normal for transparent objects to have refractive reflections, optically as the recommended answer says, I'm too lazy to play anymore.

For a rigorous discussion, see Solid State Physics, I really can't tell.

The reflection of light is mainly a matter of refractive index. That is, when light passes through an object, it will reflect a part of the light, and it will also pass through a part of the light. The reflection of the diamond is total internal reflection light, that is, the light is put into the inside of the diamond, due to the aspect of the facet, when the light enters from the light-dense material to the light-sparse material, the total reflection phenomenon occurs, so that all the light is emitted from the crown, and there is almost no light leakage at the bottom.

If a colorless diamond is transparent, light can enter the diamond because of the angle, and the internal crystal structure (i.e., the refractive index) causes the final total internal reflection. Graphite, on the other hand, is black, opaque, and absorbs light, that is to say, it is black and is the result of absorbing light.

Graphite electrons are sp2 hybridized, diamond electrons are sp3 hybridized, and different chemical bonds determine the difference in the atomic potential, with energy bands.

The wave function and band structure obtained by the capacitance theory method are different. The band structure determines the band of electromagnetic waves (optical bands) absorbed by the material.

The arrangement of atoms of course affects the absorption of photons by electrons, and even not only influences, is the decision.

The reflection of light is explained by the dielectric constant of the material medium, and some materials under the Drude model have a negative dielectric constant in some bands, so that electromagnetic waves cannot pass through the material (which can be understood as shielding).

The proportion of diamond carbon atoms absorbing visible light is very small, not that they do not absorb it.

Chemically it is the arrangement of atoms that differs in structure.

I'm new and hope to adopt.

Although they are all carbon molecular structures, their permutations and combinations are different.

This is because the composition is different, and the elements are not omnipotent.

From the perspective of waveability, the molecules of light-transmitting substances are generally relatively small, and the spacing between molecules is relatively large.

The scientific principle of light transmission can be explained from two perspectives: wave and particle.

Due to the wave-particle duality of light, the scientific principle of light transmission can be explained from two perspectives: wave and particle.

If we crush the glass into glass slag, we will find that the glass is opaque.

In ordinary applications, that is, a thickness of a few millimeters, 100 millimeters of glass bricks are rare. If we crush the glass into glass slag, we will find that the glass is opaque.