When many people listen to the word “graphite“, the first reaction is to ask: “what is graphite?” but when they hear “carbon”, they are no stranger. There are similarities and differences between graphite and carbon. Amorphous carbon, graphite and diamond are common allotropes of carbon, Diamond, a kind of mineral composed of carbon element, is called the hardest substance in nature. It is known as “king of hardness” and “king of gems”. In the middle of the 20th century, the American made artificial diamond with graphite as material in high temperature environment. Until now, artificial diamond has been widely used in production and life. Amorphous carbon generally refers to charcoal, coke, bone charcoal, sugar charcoal, activated carbon and carbon black, etc. we take the common coke as an example. Coal is a natural amorphous carbon, which contains some compounds composed of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, etc.
What we mean by amorphous carbon is the internal structure, most of which will be hard. Carbon products used in industry refer to purified carbon products. With the difference of raw materials and processing technology, the graphite crystal structure of carbon element will be different. Generally speaking, the more the graphite crystal structure is, the higher the purity of carbon, the higher the performance and price. At present, many industrial carbon products and graphite products are often confused. For example, the large-scale “graphite electrode” used in the steel industry is actually a carbon product, not a real electrode made of graphite. Graphite is the allotrope of carbon element, and graphite belongs to the conductor. Graphite is divided into natural graphite and artificial graphite. Natural graphite is divided into earthy graphite and flake graphite. Flake graphite is a better natural graphite. Artificial graphite is a kind of graphite material which can be obtained by deep processing of amorphous carbon materials, improving the purity of carbon and further increasing the proportion of graphite crystal structure. Graphite material and carbon material can be made into graphite electrode and refractory commonly used in industry. But graphite has more extensive excellent properties and is used in more sophisticated industries.
