Carbon Applications

Carbon is essential to all known living systems, and without it life as we know it could not exist. It has as many applications as many forms it gets.

Carbon creates the basis of all organic compounds. Each living organism consists of significant amount of carbon. Carbon is the foundation of life. CO₂ in atmosphere and water is the main source of carbon. Photosynthesis transfers it into biological chains in which living creatures eat each other or remains of each other obtaining carbon for building their own bodies. The biological cycle ended either by oxidation and returning to the atmosphere or depositing as coal or oil.

Carbon fossil fuel, such as mineral coal and petroleum, is the most important source of energy.

Graphite is used in pencils as well as lubricant in high and low temperatures.

Diamonds due to their extreme hardness are excellent abrasives. Cut diamonds are used in jewelry. Because of rarity, high decorative qualities and historical circumstances diamond keeps its highest price as a precious stone. The extremely high thermoconductivity (up to 2000 W/mK) makes it a very prospective in semiconductor technique as a mount surface for processors. However the relatively high price (around $50 per gram) and treating complexity limit their application in this field. At the same time the success in diamond films growing raise hopes in changing the "silicon era" in microelectronics to the "diamond era" increasing computer speed in thousand times and, in combination with nanotechnologies and optical controlling devices- in billions and ten billions times.