A review on the utilization of natural graphite and graphite-based materials

Abstract

As a type of inorganic non-metallic resources, the natural graphite has a small thermal expansion coefficient (1×10−6–30×10−6 K), a high coefficient of thermal conductivity (129 W m−1 K−1), high temperature resistances, excellent electrical conductivity (resistivity 8×10−6–13×10−6 Ω m), brilliant lubricity with a friction coefficient of 0.08–0.16, plastic feature, good chemical stability, excellent thermal shock resistance and other properties, which makes it well-known as one of the “universal” mineral materials. Graphite has been widely used in the machinery, metallurgy, petrochemicals, light industry, electronics, electrical appliances, military defenses, aerospace and other economic fields. China is one of the countries that have the largest resources of natural graphite in the world. Based on data of the graphite mineral resources, production/consumption, and the international trade of China during the past several years, this paper gives an overview of the development of graphite mining, technologies in purifying raw ores, comprehensive utilization of graphite, applications and the technological innovations of graphite-base materials. The most important three types of graphite products including the expanded graphite, the fluorinated graphite, and graphene (2D graphite) are particularly reviewed. The production process based imported graphite products, technological innovation and the gap between China and developed countries are analyzed, and the development of the comprehensive utilization of graphite resources is introduced. Finally, the future direction of the graphite science was proposed according to the disciplinary development in the non-metallic mineral materials.