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CARBON. IN EVERY FORM.

Diamond Pressure

Under immense pressure, carbon atoms lock into a tetrahedral lattice -- each bonded to four neighbours with absolute rigidity. The diamond is carbon at its most committed. No flexibility. No compromise. Just four bonds pointing to the corners of a tetrahedron, repeated a trillion trillion times.

SP3 HYBRIDIZATION -- 725,000 PSI

Graphene Flow

A single sheet of graphite. One atom thick. Two hundred times stronger than steel. So thin it is technically two-dimensional. Graphene conducts electricity better than copper and heat better than diamond. It was isolated in 2004 using Scotch tape. Sometimes the most profound discoveries require only the simplest tools.

MONOLAYER SP2 -- 0.335 NM THICK

Fullerene Orbit

Sixty carbon atoms arranged in twelve pentagons and twenty hexagons -- the molecular architecture of a football. Named after Buckminster Fuller, whose geodesic domes share its geometry. The fullerene is carbon playing with topology, proving that closure and elegance can coexist at the nanoscale.

C60 BUCKMINSTERFULLERENE -- 1985

Nanotube Horizon

Roll a graphene sheet into a cylinder and you get a carbon nanotube -- a structure so strong that a thread of them could theoretically support a space elevator. Nanotubes conduct electricity ballistically, meaning electrons travel through them without scattering. Carbon at the speed of possibility.

SINGLE-WALL CNT -- 1 NM DIAMETER
DIAMOND
GRAPHENE
FULLERENE
NANOTUBE

carbon. in every form.

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