![]() Animals incorporate carbon-14 into their bodies by eating plants or other plant-eating animals. Plants take it up in respiration, in which they convert sugars made during photosynthesis back into energy that they use to grow and maintain other processes, according to the Iowa State University Center for Nondestructive Evaluation. Carbon-14 is naturally occurring in the atmosphere. Coal is also a key component in steel production, while graphite, another form of carbon, is a common industrial lubricant.Ĭarbon-14 is a radioactive isotope of carbon used by archaeologists to date objects and remains. Carbon as coal is still a major source of fuel worldwide, providing about 37% of the world's electricity, according to the World Coal Association. The element was known to prehistoric humans in the form of charcoal. (Image credit: Nandalal Sarkar via Shutterstock)Ĭarbon's discovery is lost to history. This illustrations shows the atomic structure of Carbon-12, Carbon-13 and Carbon-14. Carbon's incredible ability to bond with many other elements is a major reason that it is crucial to almost all life.Ĭarbon isotopes come in three forms. ![]() And it uses them: Nearly 10 million carbon compounds have been discovered, and scientists estimate that carbon is the keystone for 95% of known compounds, according to the website Chemistry Explained. (It can also bond stably to fewer atoms by forming double and triple bonds.) Carbon has four empty spaces in its outer shell, enabling it to bond to four other atoms. When atoms bond, they share electrons in their outermost shell. Carbon has two electron shells, with the first holding two electrons and the second holding four out of a possible eight spaces. Chemists conceive of these distances as shells, and define the properties of atoms by what is in each shell, according to the University of California, Davis. Atoms are arranged as a nucleus surrounded by an electron cloud, with electrons zinging around at different distances from the nucleus. It can also bond with up to four other atoms because of its electron arrangement. It can link to itself, forming long, resilient chains called polymers.
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