About Graphite

About Graphite

• It is an opaque, non-metallic carbon polymorph that is blackish silver in colour and metallic to dull in sheen.
• Since it resembles metal lead, it is also known colloquially as black lead or plumbago.
• Formation: It is formed by the metamorphosis of sediments containing carbonaceous material.
• Molecular structure
  • It consists of a ring of six carbon atoms closely bonded together hexagonally in widely spaced layers.
  • The bonds within the layers are strong, but the bonds between the layers are less in number and therefore weaker.
• Properties:
  • It is a naturally occurring form of crystalline carbon and is a stable form of carbon.
  • It is extremely soft, cleaves with very light pressure, and has a very low specific gravity.
  • In contrast, it is extremely resistant to heat and nearly inert in contact with almost any other material. These extreme properties give it a wide range of uses in metallurgy and manufacturing.
• Applications: It is used in pencils, lubricants, crucibles, foundry facings, polishes, arc lamps, batteries, brushes for electric motors, and cores of nuclear reactors.
• Globally it is mined extensively in China, India, Brazil, North Korea, and Canada.
• Why Sri Lankan Graphite? Sri Lankan graphite is considered among the purest in the world with more than 98% carbon content.

Q1: What is Graphene?

It is a one-atom-thick layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. It is the building-block of Graphite (which is used, among others things, in pencil tips).

Source: India in talks with Sri Lanka to acquire graphite mine block