Lesson 4 of 6 · Chemical Bonds

Experiment⭐ 30 XP🧪 Potion Kitchen

Giant Covalent Structures

🧪Lab Brief #4

Chemical Bonds.

🎯 Your mission

Set it up. Test it. Be amazed.

⚡ The twist

Mixing two safe things doesn't always make a safe thing.

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Mind = Blown

🌈 Every color you see is your brain inventing a translation of light frequencies.

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Make a hypothesis first

Predict: will the mixture get hotter, colder, or stay the same?

What You'll Learn

Diamond, graphite and silicon dioxide are single giant lattices of covalent bonds, so they have very high melting points. Diamond's four bonds per carbon make it hard; graphite's three leave one delocalised electron per atom, so graphite conducts and slides.

Key Words

Tap a word to see its definition.

Materials Needed

molecular model kit
pencil lead
battery
bulb
leads

Safety First

Low-voltage battery only; pencil leads snap and can splinter.

Steps

Step 1 — Read

Read the explanation above and note the two key terms before you start.

Step 2 — Do

Build diamond and graphite lattices with a model kit, count the bonds per carbon in each, and use the difference to predict which conducts and which is harder. Then test a pencil lead for conductivity.

Step 3 — Observe

Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.

Step 4 — Record

Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.

Check Your Understanding

Question 1

1 of 2

Graphite conducts electricity because each carbon atom has:

How sure are you going to be?😐 maybe

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Where you see this in real life

Your toothpaste, your soap, even your breakfast involves this.

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Stretch Challenge

Try this in real life this week.

Ask a grown-up to help you mix two safe kitchen things. Predict what will happen first.

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For the dinner table

“What's something we cook that mixes things together this way?”

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