There is a rich variety of carbon chemistry that does not fall within the realm of organic chemistry and is thus called inorganic carbon chemistry. General Name, Symbol, Number carbon, C, 6 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 14, 2, p Appearance black (graphite) colorless (diamond) Atomic mass 12. ... Multicolored chemicals are frequent hallmarks of chemistry. ... Organic chemistry is that part of chemistry concerned with the composition, structure, properties, reactions and synthesis of organic compounds. ...

Perhaps best well known are the oxides of carbon, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. Other types include (but are not limited to) inorganic salts and complexes of the carbon-containing polyatomic ions, cyanide, cyanate, thiocyanate, carbonate, and carbide. An oxide is a chemical compound of oxygen with other chemical elements. ... Carbon dioxide is an atmospheric gas comprised of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. ... Carbon monoxide, chemical formula CO, is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, flammable and highly toxic gas. ... A magnified crystal of a salt (halite/sodium chloride) In chemistry, a salt is any ionic compound composed of positively charged cations and negatively charged anions, so that the product is neutral and without a net charge. ... A complex in chemistry is a reversible association of molecules, atoms, or ions through weak non-covalent chemical bonds. ... A polyatomic ion is an ion consisting of a molecule with covalently bonded atoms or of a metal complex that can be considered as acting as a single unit in the context of acid/base chemistry or in the formation of salts. ... A cyanide is any chemical compound that contains the cyano group C≡N, with the carbon atom triple-bonded to the nitrogen atom. ... The cyanate ion is an anion consisting of one oxygen atom, one carbon atom, and one nitrogen atom, in that order, and possesses 1 unit of negative charge, born mainly by the nitrogen atom. ... Thiocyanate (also known as sulphocyanate or thiocyanide) is a functional group consisting of sulfur, carbon, and nitrogen: It has a charge of 1-. Example Potassium thiocyanate, KCNS It is analogous to the cyanate ion, with oxygen replaced by sulfur. ... In inorganic chemistry, a carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid. ... Carbide In chemistry, Carbide confusingly refers to three different things: 1. ...

The known inorganic chemistry of the allotropes of carbon (diamond, graphite, and the fullerenes) blossomed with the discovery of buckminsterfullerene in the late twentieth century as additional fullerenes and their various derivatives were discovered. One such class of derivatives is inclusion compounds, in which an ion is enclosed by the all-carbon shell of the fullerene. This inclusion is denoted by the "@" symbol. For example, an ion consisting of a lithium ion trapped within buckminsterfullerene would be denoted C₆₀@Li⁺. As with any other ionic compound, this complex ion could in principle pair with a counterion to form a salt. This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... For other uses, see Diamond (disambiguation). ... Graphite (named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789, from the Greek γραφειν: to draw/write, for its use in pencils) is one of the allotropes of carbon. ... The Icosahedral Fullerene C540 The fullerenes are recently-discovered allotropes of carbon. ... A counterion is the ion that accompanies an ionic species in order to maintain electric neutrality. ...

For a fairly full listing of inorganic carbon compounds on Wikipedia see Inorganic_compounds_by_element#Carbon. This page aims to list concisely all of the common inorganic & organometallic compounds of each element, whether or not they have an existing page. ...