Carbon

Carbon is one of the most versatile elements. Beyond it’s use as an energy source several carbon allotropes are used as technology materials. Carbon blacks with an annual usage around 25 Mt/a are dominant as a functional filler in tyres and polymers, as pigments and in many more uses. Atoms are organized in graphene pattern in an onion-shell-like structure. The provenience of the 3+ Mt/a of graphites is either synthetic (2 Mt/a) or geological (1 Mt/a). The other allotropes of carbon are only available and used in minor quantities (diamond, graphene, carbon nanotubes).

90 percent of all synthetic graphites are used as electrodes, especially in electric arc furnaces (steel making, silicon and others). The wide variety of specialty graphites we are focused upon is manufactured by 20+ large companies in China, Japan, Europe (Germany) and the US.

Extreme resistance to heat and chemical attack, excellent sliding and heat conducting properties and an existing but low electric conductivity are key properties of all graphites, synthetic as well as natural. This portfolio of properties makes carbon an especially graphite a material of choice in many innovation processes.