Koalas were declared endangered in eastern Australia on Friday, with more and more koalas dying from disease, habitat loss, and other threats. Earlier, the koala was considered a vulnerable species, and the Commonwealth Department of the Environment changed its protection level to endangered on the east coast of Queensland, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory. Many koalas in Australia are infected with chlamydia. The disease can cause blindness, infection, and infertility. Last year, the Australian Koala Foundation said Australia had lost about 30 percent of its koala population in the past three years. Without immediate action, the species could become extinct by 2050.
Unlike koalas, which are on the brink of extinction, the market demand for natural graphite will grow substantially.
What is natural graphite?
Natural graphite is naturally formed graphite.
Natural graphite is an important industrial mineral, which has applications in almost every aspect of manufacturing, including electronics, atomic energy, hot metal processing, friction, coatings, aerospace, powder metallurgy, etc.
What is graphite?
Graphite is the crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite is naturally occurring and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions.
Synthetic and natural graphite is widely consumed in pencils, lubricants, and electrodes. At high pressure and temperature, it turns into diamonds. It is a weak conductor of heat and electricity.
What are the types of natural graphite?
The main types of natural graphite, each found in different types of deposits, include:
Small flakes of crystalline graphite (or flake graphite) occur as isolated, flat, plate-like particles with hexagonal edges if unfractured. When damaged, edges may be irregular or angular;
Amorphous graphite: Extremely fine flake graphite is sometimes called amorphous;
Lumpy graphite (or veined graphite) occurs in fissure veins or cracks as lumpy plate-like symbionts of fibrous or needle-like crystalline aggregates, probably of hydrothermal origin.
Highly ordered pyrolytic graphite refers to graphite whose angular distribution between graphite sheets is less than 1°.
The term "graphite fiber" is sometimes used to refer to carbon fiber or carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers.
What is natural graphite used for?
Natural graphite is a refractory material, a melting point up to 3650℃, and is a good conductor of heat and electricity. Some applications of graphite include batteries, lubricants, refractories, coatings and paints, metallurgy, and moderating rods in nuclear power plants.
Anode for electric vehicle
Graphite is currently the basic element in the production of lithium-ion batteries. Global demand for battery-grade natural and spherical graphite for the cathode is growing rapidly and will increase exponentially from 2022. These batteries are mainly used in consumer electronics and electric cars.
In addition to the steel industry, graphite is an important raw material for lightweight materials such as carbon fiber, and reinforced plastics used in cars and aircraft parts.
Lubricants and grease
Graphite used as a dry solid lubricant has become one of the most important and traditional dry lubricants in the world. For example, it is used as a lubricant for forging tools, steel, titanium, stainless steel, special superalloy stamping parts, die forging, hot extrusion, and impact extrusion processes.
Graphite has excellent lubrication, demoulding, and demoulding properties. It has high hiding power and ensures excellent tool wettability. The use of very pure graphite and highly refined oil reduces engraving and tool wear and residuals.
Refractory materials for steel, the crucible, etc.
The conductivity of graphite is about 100 times that of ordinary non-metallic minerals. In steel production, graphite is used as a protective agent for ingot and as a lining for metallurgical furnaces.
Graphite is also used in aluminum production as an alloy component in the cast iron and semiconductor industries.
Graphite, in the form of thin sheets or expanded graphite, offers the possibility of developing metal-graphite composites. Depending on the amount and direction of graphite incorporated, it can be used as a radiator material for thermal management, as a passive damping element in factories and mechanical engineering, or as a bearing material for slowly rotating plain bearings. By combining materials, properties such as strength, thermal conductivity, damping coefficient, thermal expansion coefficient, and Young's modulus can be specifically matched to the intended application. Powder metallurgy production can be targeted to control carbide content and can achieve up to 90% of the volume of graphite without pores. Therefore, mechanical finishing can be carried out even at very high graphite content.
Graphite is used in making brake pads. The main purpose of using graphite powder is to achieve solid lubrication and friction stability, can be used as a friction agent, and can also be used as a brake pad adhesive.
Graphite has a long tradition of producing pencils. Since the 19th century, pencil leads have been fired from a mixture of graphite and clay. Clay gives pencils hardness and pallor, while graphite gives them qualities that can best be described as black and soft.
Natural graphite Price
The price is influenced by many factors including the supply and demand in the market, industry trends, economic activity, market sentiment, and unexpected events.
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Natural graphite Supplier
Luoyang Tongrun Nano Technology Co. Ltd. (TRUNNANO) is a trusted global chemical material supplier & manufacturer with over 12-year-experience in providing super high-quality chemicals and nanomaterials including silicon powder, nitride powder, graphite powder, zinc sulfide, calcium nitride, 3D printing powder, etc.
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With Russia taking the lead on Poland and Bulgaria at the end of last month, there appears to be a growing sense of compromise within the EU over whether to accept Moscow's proposed rouble settlement order.
Italy's prime minister said recently that European companies would be able to buy gas in roubles without violating sanctions. This apparently ignores the guidance of hardliners in the EU to "fight to the end".
For weeks, European companies have been trying to find ways to meet Russia's payment demands for the rouble while maintaining vital gas supplies without violating sanctions against Moscow.
Late last month, European Commission President Von der Leyen said operating under the mechanism would violate sanctions and asked European companies not to bow to Russian demands. However, the EU has yet to issue more rigorous written guidelines on how companies should pay Gazprom.
The Italian prime minister said recently, "There is no official announcement from the European Union about what ruble settlement means for sanctions violations, and no one has said whether ruble payments violate sanctions or not. It's a grey area."
"In fact, most gas importers are already opening rouble accounts for deals with Gazprom,"
He also used German companies as a shield. He said Germany's largest gas importer had already paid in rubles. "In fact, we saw evidence yesterday that the largest gas importer in Germany has already paid in rubles."
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