• Carbon is a reactive nonmetal, sometimes considered a metalloid
• Carbon was recognised as an element by Antoine Lavoisier (1789)
• Carbon is is nonmetallic and tetravalent making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds
• More compounds of carbon exist than any other chemical element except for hydrogen
• The number of organic compounds is immense and possibly an indefinitely large number of such compounds are theoretically possible
• Carbon has three isotopes occuring naturally, 12C and 13C being stable, while 14C is a radionuclide
• Carbon is the 15th most abundant element in the Earth's crust, and the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen
• Carbon has a number of interesting allotropes, best known are graphite, diamond, and amorphous carbon showing extremely different properties.
• Graphite is opaque and black, one of the softest known substances (mohs hardness 1-2), a good electrical conductor
• Diamond is highly transparent, hardest naturally occurring material known (mohs hardness 10, ), poor electrical conductuctor
• Amorphous carbon is an assortment of carbon atoms in a non-crystalline, irregular, glassy state, present as a powder (in charcoal, lampblack (soot) and activated carbon)
• Other carbon allotropes include graphene and fullerenes (buckyballs, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanobuds and nanofibers)
• Several other exotic allotropes have also been discovered (lonsdaleite, glassy carbon, carbon nanofoam and linear acetylenic carbon).
• Carbon is essential to all known living systems
• A large economic use of carbon other than food and wood is in the form of hydrocarbons, most notably the fossil fuel methane gas and crude oil
• Carbon alloys with iron, of which the most common is carbon steel
• Graphite is combined with clays to form the 'lead' used in pencils
• Graphite is used as a lubricant and a pigment
• Graphite is used as brushes for electric motors and as a neutron moderator in nuclear reactors
• Charcoal is used as a drawing material in artwork, barbecue grilling, iron smelting, and in many other applications
• Wood, coal and oil are used as fuel for production of energy and heating
• Diamond is used in jewelry, and industrial diamonds are used in drilling, cutting and polishing tools for machining metals and stone
• Plastics are made from fossil hydrocarbons, carbon fibres made by pyrolysis of synthetic polyester fibres used to form advanced, lightweight composite materials
• Carbon black is used as the black pigment in in a great number of products
• Carbon black is used as a filler in rubber products such as tyres and in plastic compounds
• Activated charcoal is used as an absorbent and adsorbent filter material in gas masks, water purification, extractor hoods, and in medicine to absorb toxins
• Coke is used to reduce iron ore into iron (smelting)
• Carbon forms carbides with many elements like tungsten, boron and titanium which are among the hardest known materials, and are used as abrasives and anti-wear surfaces
• Carbon-14 is a naturally occurring radioisotope, created in the upper atmosphere
• Carbon-14 is used in radiocarbon dating to determine the age of carbonaceous materials with ages up to about 40,000 year

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