Describe why diamond is hard and graphite is soft?


Diamond and graphite both only have carbons and have covalent bonding involved.Diamond has a giant covalent lattaice and each carbon atom is bonded to 4 other carbon atoms.Graphite on the other hand is formed in layers and each carbon is bonded to 3 other carbon atoms. As a result there will be an extra unbonded electron thus forming a sea of delocalised electrons.
Graphite is soft because it has weak inter molecular forces between its layers.Diamond is hard due to its giant covalent lattice and it has many strong covalent bonds.

MS
Answered by Muhammad Saleem R. Chemistry tutor

66156 Views

See similar Chemistry GCSE tutors

Related Chemistry GCSE answers

All answers ▸

Nitrogen has an atomic number of 7 and mass number of 14, an isotope of nitrogen has a mass number of 17. Explain what an isotope is and state how many electrons, protons and neutrons this isotope has?


How many electrons are in a chloride ion Cl- and how are they arranged in the shells? a periodic table can be used.


Put these elements in ascending order of reactivity: Sodium, carbon, aluminium, copper, zinc, and then using your answer explain which elements can be extracted from their ores by carbon.


Why do simple covalent molecules compounds have low melting and boiling points?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2025 by IXL Learning