With the development of graphite industry, the application of graphite has also been widely recognized. At present, the development of graphite in China mainly includes the following points: (1) the current situation and development trend of graphite processing technology at home and abroad, China is a large country of natural graphite resources, with reserves, output and export ranking first in the world. However, due to insufficient investment in technological development, the raw material production and processing of flake graphite are still the main ones. Carbon graphite material is a promising new material, which is widely used in high-tech fields.
Developed countries have invested human and financial resources in research and development. The deep processing technology of natural graphite has developed rapidly, and some new industries have been formed. At present, the flexible graphite industry of the United States, Japan, Germany and France is in the leading position. Japan is the leader in the production of nuclear grade ultra-low sulfur (s < 500ppm) and high purity (s < 50ppm) products. Among them, only Japan can produce high-purity flexible graphite. The world’s largest production of flexible graphite is more than 15000-20000 tons. In terms of anode materials for lithium-ion batteries, due to the excellent capacity of graphite, modified graphite is used as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries in the United States and Japan, and an industry has been formed. Silicon impregnated graphite is currently produced only in Germany, the United States and Russia.
The product is a new material with high hardness, high mechanical strength, wear resistance, corrosion resistance and good lubricity in wide temperature range. Compared with silicon carbide products, the biggest feature is high yield and low price. As the period of color TV renewal is greatly shortened, the performance requirements of graphite emulsion for color TV tube are also changing with each passing day. At present, foreign countries still attach great importance to the research and development of color TV tube graphite emulsion. China’s new flexible graphite industry is under construction and development. During the “Eighth Five Year Plan” period, a number of flexible graphite processing technology and equipment achievements have been achieved, but it is still in the trial production stage.
The lithium-ion battery in China is still in the stage of small-scale test, but the anode material with stable structure has been developed with natural graphite. Its internal capacity density is 350mah / g. China has been able to produce five specifications of color TV tube graphite emulsion through introduction, digestion and absorption. At present, silicon impregnated graphite products are blank in China. (2) The development and application of flexible graphite and expanded graphite materials flexible graphite and expanded graphite are important graphite deep processing products. From the point of view of materials science, expanded graphite and flexible graphite are very different, they are two kinds of materials. Expanded graphite is a loose porous structure material with excellent sealing performance. With the development of technology and application of new materials, these two kinds of new materials have different application fields because of their different characteristics. This paper will discuss the application status and development trend of these two materials with different and closely related properties in chemical industry and other fields.