DIFFERENT

CARBON COLORS
V.Kirushnananthy
3/7/2016

Carbon
Carbon is biologically known as the building block of life. It really means that all living things are
made of elements, the most abundant of which are, oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium,
and phosphorous. Of these, carbon is the best at joining with other elements to form compounds
necessary for life, such as sugars, starches, fats, and proteins. Together, all these forms of carbon
account for approximately half of the total dry mass of living things.
Carbon is chemically known as an element, and is the 4th most common element in the Universe
(after hydrogen, helium and oxygen). It is the 15th most common element in the Earths crust
while it is the second most common element in the human body (behind oxygen). Carbon has the
highest melting point of all elements, around 3500 C (3773 K, 6332 F). Hydrocarbons are organic
compounds made entirely of molecules featuring just hydrogen and carbon. Organic chemistry
involves the study of hydrocarbons.

It is more popular at commercial level. Carbon is most commonly obtained from coal deposits,
although it usually must be processed into a form suitable for commercial use. Three naturally
occurring allotropes of carbon with different structural modifications are known to exist:
amorphous, graphite and diamond.

Different forms of carbon

Amorphous carbon
Amorphous carbon which is free, reactive carbon not
having any crystalline structure (may contains microscopic
crystals of graphite-like or even diamond like carbon) is
formed when a material containing carbon is burned
without enough oxygen for it to burn completely. This
black (coal) soot, also known as lampblack, gas black,

Fig 1: Coal soot

channel black or carbon black, is used to make inks, paints and rubber products. It can also be
pressed into shapes and is used to form the cores of most dry cell batteries, among other things.
Graphite
Graphite, one of the softest materials known, is a form of carbon that is primarily used as a
lubricant. Although it does occur naturally, most commercial graphite is produced by treating
petroleum coke, a black tar residue remaining after the refinement of crude oil, in an oxygen-free
oven.
Naturally occurring graphite is in two forms, alpha and beta.
These two forms have identical physical properties but
different crystal structures. All artificially produced graphite is
of the alpha type.
Fig 2: Graphite

In addition to its use as a lubricant, graphite in a form known as coke is used in large amounts in
the production of steel. Coke is made by heating soft coal in an oven without allowing oxygen to
mix with it. Although commonly called lead, the black material used in pencils is actually
graphite
Diamond
Diamond is the most concentrated form of pure carbon in the natural world and the strongest
mineral on Earth, far exceeding other carbon allotropes such as graphite and fullerite. The secret
to diamond's superior strength is found on the molecular level.
Carbon atoms possess four valence electrons available for bonding. In
diamond crystals, each of those four free electrons forms a covalent
bond with a valence electron of a neighboring carbon atom. Since all

Fig 3: Diamond

of the free electrons are bonded uniformly, it creates a rigid tetrahedral lattice that gives the
coveted mineral its prized properties.

Carbon sources and sinks

Carbon is continually moving among Earth's lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and
atmosphere in various forms: as carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, sugars or carbohydrates
(CnH2nOn) in living organisms, and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in rocks and minerals, to name
just a few.
Processes that release CO2 to the atmosphere are called carbon sources, while processes that
absorb it are called carbon sinks. Forests, soil, oceans, the atmosphere, and fossil fuels are
important stores of carbon. However, the movement of carbon among earths sphere is the
critical to the live of earth. This movement can be illustrated by the carbon cycle.
Green plants play a very important role in the carbon cycle. They absorb carbon dioxide (CO 2)
from the atmosphere and produce carbon-containing sugars. This process is called
photosynthesis.

Fig 4: Carbon cycle

Animals eat plants to obtain the energy trapped during photosynthesis. As the animals' bodies
break down the carbohydrates in the plant tissue, CO2 is released to the atmosphere. This process
is called respiration.

Ocean as a largest natural carbon sink

A sink absorbs more carbon than it gives off, while a source emits more than it absorbs. The
amount of carbon in the atmosphere at any one time depends on the balance that exists between
the sinks and sources. Natural sinks for atmospheric CO2 include photosynthesis, forests, oceans
and freshwater bodies, fossil fuels and carbonate rocks. Carbon dioxide readily dissolves in water
and the oceans provide a huge reservoir of carbon.
Across the world's oceans there is a continual cycle of equilibration of dissolved carbon dioxide in
water with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Around 88 thousand million tonnes of carbon is
released from the surface of the world's oceans each year, with an annual uptake by the oceans of
90 thousand million tonnes. Consequently, the net uptake of carbon dioxide by oceans is
estimated to be approximately 2 thousand million tonnes annually. Ocean is the largest CO2 sink
absorbing 25-30%of the anthropogenic CO2, lowering the oceanic surface water pH average by
0.1.

Fig 5: Carbon down to the Deep - The Ocean's Biological Pump

Carbon burial in the ocean represents slightly over 10% of the oceanic carbon sink capacity (up to
25%) , estimated to be about 2,000 Tg C year1. However, this 2,000 Tg C year1 is the carbon
annually transferred from the atmosphere to the oceans, where it is largely stored as dissolved
inorganic carbon. The long-term residence of anthropogenic CO2 in the oceans is uncertain, as this
carbon does not penetrate deep enough to remain in the ocean over extended time scales.

Many CO2 molecules that diffuse into sea surface waters diffuse back to the atmosphere on very
short time scales. However, some of the carbon atoms from these original CO2 molecules stay in
the ocean for time scales of hundreds to thousands of years. If some carbon atoms eventually
make it to the bottom of the ocean sediment as illustrated in Fig 4, they can be stored for time
scales of millions of years.

The Colors of Carbon

The colors of carbon are specified with the types of sources and sinks of carbon. The production
of carbon compound especially in the form of carbon dioxide determines the type of carbon in
terms of color. Oil used to be the dominant fossil fuel, but as of 2008, coal is dominant (40% to
oils 37%). The future of anthropogenic fossil fuel use depends on human decisions about energy
use at the international scale.
1. BROWN carbon
Fossil fuels represent carbon storage areas. Carbon that is locked in
these fossil fuels does not cycle through the Earth. When humans
burn fossil fuels such as gasoline, coal, oil, natural gas, the stored
carbon which is recognized as brown carbon, is released into the
atmosphere as carbon dioxide. The carbon is then free to cycle

through the Earth and can upset the natural balance of the carbon available, changing the way
that processes occur on Earth.

2. BLACK carbon
Black carbon is formed through the combustion of wood particles containing especially organic
carbon compound of Cellulose (C6H10O5), which is a polymer made up by repetition of Glucose
residues and released to the environment in the form of
dust particles and soot which enter the sediment. In
well ventilated conditions, the smoke production of
wood is typically about 25100 m2/kg.
The main products of combustion of wood particles are
carbon dioxide and water, but also other chemical
compounds can be released. If these compounds are

toxic, they impede the egress of occupants from a burning building. The main cause of
intoxication in fires is carbon monoxide (CO). It is the dominating toxic combustion product from
burning wood. The formation of CO is strongly dependent on ventilation: well-ventilated
combustion produces considerably less CO (less than 10 g/ kg of burning material) than oxygencontrolled burning where CO production is of the order of 100 g/kg of burning material. Also the
temperature is a significant factor, because it has a strong effect on the course of the chemical
reactions in combustion.
3. GREEN carbon
The carbon which is formulated via photosynthesis and stored in plants more than ever terrestrial
primary producers and soil particularly in natural systems is considered as Green carbon. The
stored carbon is released to the environment as CO2 upon natural death of plants, or lost by
degradation, or utilization as food or as various products, including bio-fuel (about 55% of green
carbon). Vegetation and soil are currently slowing down global warming by absorbing about a

quarter of human emissions of carbon dioxide. This

territorial carbon sink especially forest is believed to be in
part due to increases in photosynthesis. It is widely accepted
that plant photosynthesis will increase with carbon dioxide,
so long as nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, are
not limiting. Global Earth System Models (ESMs) all predict that global photosynthesis will
increase with carbon dioxide, but they differ by a factor of three in the size of this 'CO 2
fertilization'.
4. BLUE carbon
Carbon dioxide readily dissolves in water and the oceans provide a
huge reservoir of carbon. The carbon captured by the worlds oceans
and stored in marine organisms from carbon dissolved in water is
described as Blue carbon. In addition, vegetated coastal habitats such as

mangroves, seagrasses, and marshes like aquatic

primary producers are also included as blue carbon
source. The carbon dioxide Blue carbon dissolves in
our oceans occurs in three main forms. Aside from the
normal carbon dioxide form, it is also found as
bicarbonate and carbonate ions. The oceans have a key
role in regulating atmospheric CO2 concentrations and
currently take up about 25 % of annual anthropogenic
carbon emissions to the atmosphere.
Coastal

wetlands

tend

to

be

very

productive

ecosystemsmeaning that the plants grow a lot each

year. As part of the growth process, plants capture
carbon dioxide from the air and convert it to plant

Fig 6: Blue carbons sink

parts such as leaves, stems, or roots. This process is called fixation or uptake of carbon
dioxide.
One reason coastal wetlands are particularly good at storing carbon is because the soils are
largely anaerobic, which means they lack oxygen. In most coastal wetlands there is usually a thin
layer of soil that is oxygenated and above water, but the remainder of the soil is submerged in
water. Oxygen diffuses very slowly through water, so saturated (wet) soils in these wetland
habitats tend to have little to no oxygen present.
Decomposition of organic plant material is much slower when there is no oxygen present, so the
carbon present in this plant material remains intact, rather than being broken down by microbes
and respired back to the atmosphere. As a result, wetlands are very good carbon sinks (meaning
they store a lot of carbon).

Oceans have a large capacity to absorb CO2, thus reducing the amount of CO2in the atmosphere
and bringing carbon atoms into the ocean system. Many CO2 molecules that diffuse into sea
surface waters diffuse back to the atmosphere on very short time scales. However, some of the
carbon atoms from these original CO2 molecules stay in the ocean for time scales of hundreds to
thousands of years. If some carbon atoms eventually make it to the bottom of the ocean sediment,
they can be stored for time scales of millions of years.
Blue carbon sinks are strongly autotrophic, which means that these ecosystems fix CO2 as organic
matter via photosynthesis in excess of the CO2 respired back by aquatic biota.
References:
Nellemann, C. et al. (2009). Blue Carbon. The Role of Healthy Oceans in Binding Carbon. UNEP, GRID-Arendal,
www.grida.no
Le Quere, C., Raupach M.R., Canadell, J.G., Marland, G. et al (2009) Trends in the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide.
Nature Geoscience 2, 831 836. doi:10.1038/ngeo689.