Diamond as an Element or Compound

Name: Katlyn
Status: student
Grade: 6-8
Location: TN

Question: Are diamonds classified as an element or a compound?
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Diamond is a specific allotrope (form) of the element carbon.  
It is a covalent network solid, but it is made of atoms of all 
the same element, carbon.

Many elements in their "uncombined" state consist of covalently-
bonded networks (boron, carbon, silicon) or discrete covalent 
molecules (nitrogen, chlorine, sulfur).  They are still elements, 
regardless of their covalent bonds.

Richard Barrans
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Wyoming
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Since diamonds are almost pure carbon it would be classified as 
an element for all practical purposes. If one wants to get very 
"picky", there are a few "stray" atoms of other elements in natural 
diamonds and one could argue that diamonds are a "solid" solution 
of those atoms. But those kinds of "technical" distinctions are 
really not the point of classifying substances.

Vince Calder
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Hi,
Diamond is made of pure carbon, with carbon atoms arranged in a cubic 
structure and bonded to their neighbors in a very compact way.
So, diamond is made of an element but it is not an element.
It is not a compound either, because, by definition, a compound is 
made up of two or more elements.
I would say diamond is crystalline form of carbon, that is, it is 
composed merely of carbon atoms in a highly structured arrangement.
It is carbon, like charcoal, but its more expensive due to its good 
properties and the fantastic marketing to the gullible public.

Ali Khounsary, PhD
Advanced Photon Source
Argonne National Laboratory
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