Question

Graphite is soft while diamond is hard because:

• A. Graphite is in powder form
• B. diamond has $s p^{2}$ hybridisation but graphite has $s p^{3}$ hybridisation
• C. Graphite is in planar form while diamond is in tetrahedral form
• D. Graphite is covalent and diamond is ionic.

Answer 1

Answer: (C)

Graphite is in planar form while diamond is in tetrahedral form

Answer 2

In diamond each carbon atom is $s p^{3}$ hybridised and is joined to each other by strong covalent bond to form a tetrahedral structure. While in graphite carbon atoms form planar, hexagonal rings to give it a sheet like structure. Each sheet is joined to each other by weak van der Waal force. Hence diamond is harder than graphite.