If you cut a chunk of graphite into two, you break many bonds between atoms (that you couldn’t “rebond” together by holding the parts together); if you were to continue this process forever until all bonds are broken, would you be left with liquid graphite?

Question

If you cut a chunk of graphite into two, you break many bonds between atoms (that you couldn’t “rebond” together by holding the parts together); if you were to continue this process forever until all bonds are broken, would you be left with liquid graphite?

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Answer 1

You’d have a pile of dust. Graphite is what makes up the lead of a pencil, and the mark a pencil makes is basically what you’re describing. It would make a thin dust that sticks to surfaces fairly well.

Now, a big enough pile of graphite dust would be similar in some ways to liquid. It can flow, expands to fill the container, can make wave patterns when vibrated, etc. We refer to materials like this as granular fluids and there’s a lot of interesting physics behind them. They aren’t liquids, but they share some similarities.