subject: Technological Advances In The Carbon Industry [print this page] The most abundant material in nature is carbon and it has a unique ability to combine chemically with other elements with the help of strong covalent bonds that result in a variety of structures that enable the development in various materials which are of different properties.
It can be extremely hard like diamond and graphite and it can be easily delaminated, dense, high strength composite materials carbon / carbon), and it is also apt for structural applications in aircraft and racing cars. There is also an another type of carbon that is porous and is an activated carbon as it is very useful for absorbents that is used for energy storage and is also good for the support for catalysts.
These products can be highly conductive for graphite or other insulating vitreous carbon materials. This range of carbon products ensure that these products are capable of operating in high temperatures and that too in the most extreme conditions.
These materials have much scope in the range of fullerenes and nano tubes. As these products have played an important role in the pre-historic times as well in pigment cave paintings, products in the gunpowder, writing and it has contributed in the development of the society.
The carbon fibers in the 60's era had high strength and it was very flexible and at that time it was considered as a major milestone in the development of these products. But comparatively with other products the vitreous carbon was named after the conchoidal fracture surface, and it has properties that are very similar to the glass and is very brittle and hard. Then new forms of graphitic carbon, needle and spherules contributed to the development of new carbon products that were used for diverse applications.
There are other components that are used for the same purpose like Bituminous Coal - BC 03, Bituminous Coal - BC 02 and some of the products were developed in the 70's like prostheses, ligaments, heart valves and many other products.
With further development in the technology it came into producing high density isotropic graphite that allowed an extensive usage of these products in high temperature reactors that were used in the synthesis devices and in semi conductor crystals and in various components of electrical discharge. The in the 80's carbon fibers were introduced in the civil engineering and other architectural systems building and bridges due the discovery of fullerenes in the systems.
