Why is carbon not used as a semiconductor device?
Carbon is not a semiconductor because the forbidden energy gap in carbon is around 7eV. This is far much higher for it to be a conductor or even semiconductors which has lower forbidden energy gaps. For a atom to behave like semiconductor its energy gap should be 1 to 3 eV.
Although carbon is one of the most promising candidates to replace silicon because it can move electrons 10 times as fast, shrinking carbon transistors increases electrical resistance in contacts-the valves through which electrons move from metal into the channels-thus compromising the performance of the chip.
The most used semiconductor materials are silicon, germanium, and gallium arsenide. Of the three, germanium was one of the earliest semiconductor materials used. Germanium has four valence electrons, which are electrons located on the outer shell of the atom.
That is why C is an insulator while Si and Ge are intrinsic semiconductors.
Carbon nanotubes, though, are almost as thin as an atom. And they ferry electricity well. As a result, they make better semiconductors than silicon. In principle, carbon nanotube processors could run three times faster than silicon ones.
Graphite being a form of carbon(a non metal) is not ductile in nature and hence cannot be drawin into a wire as it will break on being pulled.
Cubic boron arsenide is one of the best semiconductors known to science and could even dethrone silicon as the principal component of modern electronics.
When silicon bonds with other atoms including itself, the bonds formed are feeble due to a higher requirement of electrons. In contrast, carbon bonds are the strongest.
Silicon bonds are less stable because of their large size and reactive whereas bonds formed by Carbon(carbon has a small size) bonds are very strong hence carbon shows better catenation than Silicon.
- Silicon. Historically, silicon (Si, Group 14) has found the greatest use in semiconductor applications. ...
- Germanium. ...
- Boron. ...
- Gallium and Arsenic. ...
- Copper. ...
- Conclusion. ...
- Sources.
What are the 3 types of semiconductor?
Gallium arsenide, germanium, and silicon are some of the most commonly used semiconductors. Silicon is used in electronic circuit fabrication and gallium arsenide is used in solar cells, laser diodes, etc.
Silicon is abundantly present and is the most utilized substance for the fabrication of computer chips. Silicon is a naturally occurring semiconductor. The injection of imperfections to silicon can change its electrical characteristics, a technique known as doping.

The main component of carbon fiber is carbon, and its molecular structure is similar to graphite. Thus, it behaves like metal because its electrical conductivity is extremely high.
If you look "silicon" up in the periodic table, you will find that it sits next to aluminum, below carbon and above germanium. Carbon, silicon and germanium (germanium, like silicon, is also a semiconductor) have a unique property in their electron structure -- each has four electrons in its outer orbital.
Non – Metals
For example, carbon in the form of graphite is an excellent conductor of electricity. If you see the structure of graphite, only three of the four carbon atoms are used for bonding. This leaves one electron free for bonding. However, most non-metals are not good conductors of electricity.
The most common 2-D material replacing silicon is graphene. Graphene is an allotrope of carbon consisting of a single layer of atoms arranged in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice.
Carbon nanotube computers are a class of experimental computing processors constructed from carbon nanotube field-effect transistors, instead of from conventional silicon-based field-effect transistors.
Graphene has been called “the miracle material” because of its extreme strength and lightness, which is better even than carbon fiber's.
Even when treated with other materials, carbon fiber is still not quite as good as metal when it comes to electricity conduction. Metals like silver, aluminum, and copper are especially good at conducting electricity, still about 100x as fast as carbon fiber treated with good electricity conductors.
Copper is used for electrical wiring because it is a good conductor of electricity. The free electrons in metals can move through the metal, allowing metals to conduct electricity.
Is carbon fiber more conductive than copper?
But a series of tests shows the wet-spun carbon nanotube fiber still handily beat copper, carrying up to four times as much current as a copper wire of the same mass.
We therefore refer to this method as reduction using carbon. Elements which are more reactive than carbon will be extracted using electrolysis. Aluminium is more reactive than carbon so it must be extracted from ores containing aluminium oxide using this method.
Metals above zinc in the reactivity series are too reactive to be extracted by heat- ing with carbon or carbon monoxide gas. In this extraction process the metal ions are reduced and the carbon is oxidised. Both iron and copper can be extracted from the ore by heating with carbon.
Carbon fiber can't be melted down, and it's not easy to recycle. When it is recycled, the recycled carbon fiber isn't as strong as it was before recycling. Carbon fiber recycled from a car isn't strong enough to be used in building another car.
When compared to Germanium, silicon has more stable and results in less current leakage. This is because silicon has an energy band gap of 1.12eV at 0 K. Adding impurities to pure silicon, a process that is known as 'doping', can further enhance its semiconducting properties.
Calcium is above carbon in the reactivity series, which means it cannot be extracted using a displacement reaction with carbon.
Copper may be extracted from copper oxide by reaction with carbon.
Electrolysis is used to extract aluminium from its ore as aluminium is more reactive than carbon therefore cannot be extracted by carbon. Any metal in the reactivity series above carbon must be extracted using electrolysis as it to too reactive.
So, we can say that carbon attracts electrons i.e., it is a non-metal and lead can lose electrons i.e., it is a metal.
Carbon is the only non-metal that has the ability to conduct electricity.
Why Can carbon be used to extract copper from its ore but not aluminium?
The more reactive a metal is, the more difficult it is to separate it from its compounds. If a metal is above carbon in the reactivity series, carbon will not displace the metal from its oxide. Since aluminium is above carbon, it is extracted from its ore by electrolysis.
In theory, carbon fiber could stop a bullet, but Kevlar® or other aramid fiber has more flexibility and impact resistance. Besides, Kevlar® is a more cost-effective option for bulletproof armor. Carbon fiber does offer a high level of protection against some objects.
Semiconductors use raw materials like silicon, germanium, metals, gallium arsenide, etc. These are important to the survival of modern life since it is a crucial element for most electronic devices.
—Graphene is a semi-metal and is a zero-gap semiconductor (Fig. 4a). In addition, bilayer graphene's electronic band structure changes significantly via the electric field effect, and the semiconducting gap ΔE can be tuned continuously from zero to ≈0.3 eV if SiO2 is used as a dielectric.
Semiconductors are divided into two types, intrinsic semiconductors, and extrinsic semiconductors.