Assertion: Graphite is a good conductor of electricity however diamond belongs to the category of insulators. Reason: Graphite is soft in nature on the other hand diamond is very hard and brittle.

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Assertion and reason both are correct statements but reason is not correct explanation for assertion. Explanation: Diamond is bad conductor of electricity because all valence e of carbon are involved in bonding. In graphite however 3 out of 4 valence electrons are involved in bonding, fourth electron remains free between adjacent layers which makes it a good conductor. Graphite is soft because parallel layers are held together by week van der Waals force. However, diamond is hard due to compact three-dimensional network of bonding.

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