Synthetic commercial graphites

Two forms of carbon materials are used as additives in the battery industry carbons and graphites. Carbons, in turn, are carbon blacks, activated carbon, etc. Graphites are also available in several forms purified natural flake graphites, expanded graphites, synthetic spherical graphites, etc. Table 7.1 summarises the basic characteristics (particle size, specific BET surface area, trade name) of some of the commercially available carbon and graphite materials. 

Synthetic graphite can be made in large pieces with properties which can be varied over wide ranges. Sp. gr. varies from 1.2-2.0 for normal commercial graphites and from 1.2-2.26 for pyrolytic graphites. 

The majority of carbons produced for commercial use, that is as electrodes and nuclear graphite, are produced from cokes, coals or existing natural or synthetic graphite as follows ... 

Synthetic carbonaceous materials are widely used in these applications. Several types of synthetic materials (e.g. graphitized mesophase carbon microbeads (MCMB), graphitized milled carbon fiber, and even, initially, hard carbons) became the materials of choice at the time of commercialization of first successful lithium-ion batteries in late 1980s. New trends, mainly driven by cost reduction and need for improved performance, currently shift focus towards application of natural graphite. 

Other advances in material science have helped humans mimic nature in the production of certain materials. For example, in the last half of the twentieth century we have learned how to produce synthetic diamonds. Diamonds were first produced commercially in the 1950s by General Electric by subjecting graphite to temperatures of 2,500°C and pressures approaching 100,000 atmospheres. Currently, well over a hundred companies produce synthetic diamonds. 

Smaller utensils can easily be prepared in the laboratory from pieces of pure synthetic carbon or graphite. Tubes, plates, valves and other shapes made of pure graphite, as well as of graphite reinforced with synthetics, are commercially available. 

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