Capable of forming diamonds, graphene and life itself, carbon taken from the atmosphere will soon be used to produce plastics and fuel, according to nanomaterials professor Andrei Khlobystov.
"Carbon is very special," said Khlobystov, who is professor of nanomaterials at the University of Nottingham's School of Chemistry.
"We are carbon-based life forms. All life on Earth is based on carbon. And this is not a coincidence."
Above: Andrei Khlobystov is director of the Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre at the University of Nottingham. Top: carbon is capable of forming a wide range of materials including diamonds
Khlobystov, who is director of the Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre at the English university, studies carbon at a molecular scale. Carbon atoms are uniquely versatile, he says, because of their ability to form strong bonds with other carbon atoms as well as atoms of other elements. This allows them to form more chemical compounds than any other element.
"This is actually quite unprecedented as far as the elements are concerned," Khlobystov explained. "It can form different types of bonds, very strong ones. It can exist in different hybridisation states."
Carbon has a "very rich chemistry"
This means that the same carbon atoms can arrange themselves in many different patterns, creating vastly different materials. Diamond, for example, is pure carbon and is the hardest substance on earth. But soft, weak g...