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Graphite and Graphene

Graphite is a giant covalent structure. It is made of hexagonally arranged carbon atoms covalently bonded together. Each carbon atom uses three of the outer electrons to form three covalent bonds with three other carbon atoms.The layers are held together by weak London forces.The spare electron is delocalised between the layers. The delocalised electron can move between the layers, so graphite is an electrical conductor.

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Specification: OCR Chemistry A (H032), AS-level, 3.1.1 Periodicity. Topic: Periodicity.

Key terms in this lesson

Covalent bond
A strong electrostatic attraction between a shared pair of electrons and the nuclei of the bonded atoms.
London forces
Weak intermolecular forces caused by an instantaneous dipole inducing a dipole in a neighbouring molecule.
Delocalised electrons
Electrons that are not associated with a single atom or bond and are free to move throughout a structure.
Giant covalent lattice
A structure in which large numbers of atoms are held together throughout by strong covalent bonds.

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