The Essential Role of Carbon in Life’s Chemistry

by John Gideon Hartnett | Bible Science Forum

All known life is based on the Carbon (C) atom. Yet it is the scientific dream to create life based on Silicon (Si). However that type of ‘life’ is only found in science fiction stories. It does not exist in what we call the real world.

The atmosphere of the Earth predominantly contains only one oxidizer, and that is Oxygen (O₂). Besides that gaseous molecule (O₂), which is required for all life on Earth, Oxygen is also found in inorganic compounds, like Carbonates (based on Carbon) and Silicates (based on Silicon) in the crustal rocks.

Oxidize Carbon (C) and you get Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) a colourless gas found in the atmosphere and critically important for photosynthesis and life. Oxidize Silicon (Si) and you get Silicon Dioxide (SiO₂) a crystalline rock called Silica or quartz.

Consider these to equations:

O₂ (gas) + C → CO₂ (gas) + energy (exothermic reaction) (1)

energy + CO₂ (gas) → C + O₂ (gas) (endothermic reaction) (2)

Equation (1) describes the burning of Carbon, i.e. wood or coal, which releases heat. This reaction was designed for mankind’s survival in a post-flood world with an Ice Age and cold weather. Carbon could also come in the form of a gas (Methane) or a liquid (Petroleum fuel).

But equation (2) is arguably more important. It is the basis of the reaction process called photosynthesis in green plants producing oxygen and sugars and hence food. It is more precisely described by

sunlight (energy) + CO₂ (gas) + H₂O (gas) → C_xH_yO_z (sugars) + O₂ (gas) (3)

Compare that to the equivalent reaction with Silicon (Si).

sunlight (energy) + SiO₂ (solid) + H₂O (gas) → wet rocks (4)

There is no equivalent photosynthetic reaction with SiO₂.

The crazy Green Climate Change cult believes, contrary to basic physics, that they can use forms of equation (2) to make green hydrocarbon fuel or green hydrogen gas. However where that reaction is used enormous amounts of energy must be added. It is illogical and inefficient because it costs more energy than can be derived from its products.

However there is the Silicon equivalent of equation (1). See equation (5) below, which is used in the manufacture of Silicon chips for the semiconductor industry.

There are chemical reactions which occur in the crust under which you get solid Silicon Dioxide (SiO₂) a crystalline rock called Silica or quartz at standard temperature and pressure. In industry man-made crystalline quartz is commonly used as the electro-mechanical element in time standards, i.e. quartz crystal clocks.

On the other hand man-made Silicon (Si) is cut into thin wafers and used as the substate for integrated circuits. And the oxidation of the Silicon surface is an important feature in the properties of the substrate.

The surface of pure Silicon (Si) has a high affinity for Oxygen (O₂) and thus an oxide layer (SiO₂) rapidly forms upon exposure to the atmosphere. The chemical reactions which describe this formation are:

O₂ + Si (solid) → SiO₂ (solid) + energy (exothermic reaction) (5)

thermal energy + Si (solid) + 2 H₂O (gas) → SiO₂ (solid) + 2 H₂ (gas) (6)

In the first reaction (5) a dry process is utilized involving oxygen gas as the oxygen source and the second reaction (6) describes a wet process, which uses steam. The dry process provides a ‘good’ Silicon Dioxide (SiO₂) but is slow and mostly used at the beginning of processing.

The wet procedure is problematic in that the purity of the water used cannot be guaranteed to a suitable degree. This problem can be easily solved using a pyrogenic technique which combines hydrogen and oxygen gases to form water vapor of very high purity. Maintaining reagents of high quality is essential to the manufacturing of integrated circuits, and is a concern which plagues each step of this process. See for details.

Do you yet see why God created life based on the Carbon atom?

In pitch darkness of deep ocean vents where the only energy source is heat from submarine volcanic hydrothermal vents, also known as black or white smokers, some organisms utilise Hydrogen Sulphide (H₂S) to produce sugars, not photosynthesis.

Some worms thrive at the base of these vents because they have bacteria working with them to produce sugars and other substances needed for growth, but how do they do this without sunlight, as it only penetrates through the first few hundred metres.

Instead, the bacteria use hydrogen sulphide to produce their sugars. Organisms that do this are known as chemoautotrophs. What light is to plants, hydrogen sulphide is to chemoautotrophs, giving them a way to take carbon from their surroundings and turn it into something useful. By combining oxygen in the water with hydrogen sulphide from the vent (oxidising it) the bacteria produce energy, sulphur and water. This energy can be used to create sugars for growth, making them the primary producers of the deep ocean.

Source (my emphasis added)

Carbon and Oxygen are still involved in the chemical reactions to produce the sugars but sunlight and photosynthesis is not.

There are no examples of respiration (an oxidation reaction liberating energy) or the reverse process of photosynthesis (a reduction reaction requiring energy) which do not depend on Carbon. Even in the deep ocean vents Oxygen is extracted from the water to oxidise Hydrogen Sulphide to produce energy (Carbon-based sugars), with Sulphur and water as byproducts.

What about the equivalent to the simplest hydrocarbon? Silicon Hydride (SiH₄), also known as Silane, is a binary compound consisting of Silicon and Hydrogen. It is a colourless, pyrophoric gas with a sharp, repulsive odour, similar to acetic acid. The gas undergoes spontaneous combustion in air and compounds containing Si−H bonds are more reactive than hydrogen gas (H₂).

These compounds would be the equivalent of sugars produced from some hypothetical photosynthesis-equivalent reaction with Silicon, and not from equation (5). Hence there would be nothing stable about such hypothetical Silicon-based ‘sugars’.

To be fair the simplest hydrocarbon is Methane (CH₄), a colourless gas, is highly reactive with Oxygen but not pyrophoric. It is the start of long chain alkanes with added CH₂ segments making Propane, Octane etc. The fact that it undergoes a reaction with Oxygen releasing energy (heat) tells us about the basis of sugars as food.

God created Carbon (C) with 6 electrons and hence its ability to bond 4 Hydrogen (H) atoms as the start of the Carbon-backbone of life in the universe. This is based on its 4 available p-orbital electrons to form covalent bonds. This produces molecules represented by CH_x where x = 2 or 4 and where many CH₂ units may be added.

Carbon-based molecules CH_x can form long chains called polymers. In fact plant fibres are living polymers based on the CH₂ backbone. And by definition they are organic compounds whereas the Silicon-based compounds are inorganic, i.e. not related to life but to rocks.

Silicon-based compounds like Quartz can be very beautiful as seen in an Amethyst crystals (left) but so can Carbon-based compounds (right).

God designed the Carbon molecule to have all the necessary properties for life in a biosphere with plenty of Oxygen and water. That molecule is perfectly suited to permit a sustainable living environment. He also provided planet Earth in the habitable zone of the solar system to supply the necessary biosphere.

Why do the Climate Cultists want to eliminate Carbon? That is, eliminate all these molecules including CO₂ and CH₄ which they claim to be heating the planet through some greenhouse effect? Is it because all lifeforms on Earth depend and are built on this Carbon-backbone?

No Carbon means no life!