Natural flake graphite

Natural flake graphite is a kind of graphite, which belongs to pure natural graphite. The chemical and physical properties of natural flake graphite are better than artificial graphite. Therefore, more customers choose natural flake graphite. The following article will introduce natural flake graphite from several aspects so that everyone can understand all aspects of natural flake graphite

Essential information

Flake graphite is a kind of natural phanerocrystalline graphite, which is in the shape of fish phosphorus. It belongs to a hexagonal crystal system and has a layered structure. It has good properties of high-temperature resistance, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, lubrication, plasticity, acid, and alkali resistance.

Classification

Classification by carbon content

For example, 99.9% of C% is high purity graphite; 94% C% < 99% is high carbon graphite; 80% C% < 94% is medium carbon graphite; 50% C% < 80% is low carbon graphite.

Classification by particle size

When the particle size is smaller than that of W38, the graphite powder will be fine.

Application

Folding refractory

Flake graphite is widely used as a high-grade refractory and coating in the metallurgical industry. Such as magnesia carbon brick, the crucible, etc. Pyrotechnic materials stabilizer for military industry, the desulfurized accelerator for smelting industry, pencil lead for light industry, carbon brush for the electrical industry, an electrode for the battery industry, the catalyst for the chemical fertilizer industry, etc. After further processing, flake graphite can also produce graphite emulsion, which can be used as lubricant, release agent, wire drawing agent, conductive coating, etc. It can also produce expanded graphite, which can be used as raw materials for flexible graphite products, such as flexible graphite seals and flexible graphite composite products.

Folding coating

Flake graphite, as a functional filler of coatings, is mainly used in anti-corrosive coatings, fireproof coatings, and conductive coatings.

As an anticorrosive material, the antirust primer made of carbon black, talc powder, and oil has good chemical and solvent corrosion resistance; If zinc yellow and other chemical pigments are added into the formula, the antirust effect is better.

Expandable graphite is a kind of graphite intercalation compound obtained by chemical or electrochemical treatment with natural graphite flakes as raw materials. Under the condition of the heating, the volume of expandable graphite expands rapidly (up to 300 times) to suffocate the flame. At the same time, it forms expansions, which can isolate the flame and delay or interrupt the flame spread. Moreover, it is nonflammable, has good softness, high surface energy, and good strength of the carbonized layer. But the volume and dosage of the expansion body should be selected appropriately. The results show that 150um particles, 30% expansion ratio, and 5% dosage are the most suitable.

The flake graphite can be directly used as a carbon conductive filler or composite conductive filler for conductive coatings. However, due to a large number of graphite flakes, the performance of the coating will become brittle and its application will be limited. Therefore, measures should be taken to further improve the conductivity of graphite and effectively reduce the number of graphite flakes. Tianhua Chemical Machinery Research Institute has developed high-temperature corrosion-resistant resin as binder, large solid graphite flakes with strong electrostatic conductivity as the main aggregate, high strength, and good wear resistance.

It is a solvent-free thick film conductive coating with chopped fiber material as a functional filler and good resistance to deformation and cracking. The coating has the characteristics of anti-corrosion medium penetration, small curing residual stress, good resistance to matrix deformation and cracking stable construction performance, and long-term static electricity conduction. It can be used for electrostatic conductive coating on the inner wall of the crude oil storage tank. It is reported that the composite conductive filler is prepared by electroless plating on graphite powder, such as copper, nickel, silver, etc., and 30% of it is used in the conductive coating, which does not only have good conductivity but also further improves the corrosion resistance.

Natural Flake Graphite Price

There are more places available for natural flake graphite than artificial graphite, so the general customers will choose natural flake graphite, which has also led to the increasing demand for natural flake graphite. With the convening of the World Graphite Conference, people are paying more and more attention to the price of natural flake graphite.

On May 19, the world’s mainstream natural flake graphite enterprises gathered together with China Minmetals, Jixi Northeast Asia, Qingdao Luo, Qingdao Haida, jixibeiteri, Qingdao TEDA, Nongken Yixiang, Qingdao Heilong, and the International Forum on lithium negative materials and raw materials market in 2021 (14th) sponsored by Xinlun information After the exchange of domestic and foreign enterprises, such as the North great waste black gold, Jixi Changyuan, Aoyu graphite, Qingdao gawa, Qingdao Qingbei, Zhanjiang Juxin, Qingdao vintage, Zhongshuang graphite, Dasheng graphite and Jinan Yuxiao, all major graphite producers in China have indicated that the prices of various kinds of production materials are rising generally and the investment in policy norms is also increasing, The cost of graphite production is increased obviously; The market demand of the downstream lithium anode materials is increasing continuously. According to Xinlun information, it is expected that the output of lithium negative materials in China will reach 650000 tons in 2023.

The current situation of China’s flake graphite is that the amount of mining is decreasing, but with the increasing world demand, the export volume of Chinese graphite is also rising significantly, so the increase in demand and the decrease in mining volume have also led to a further price increase. rise.

Generally speaking, the production cost of natural flake graphite production enterprises increases, the main mining enterprises have low inventory and the demand continues to be good, which lays a market foundation for the price rise of natural graphite.

According to Xinlun information, on May 21, graphite enterprises in the Jixi region have started to increase their prices. At present, the natural flake graphite-195 has risen by 200 yuan/ton and is reported to be 3300-3500 yuan/ton.

With the increase in demand for flake graphite, the price rises more and more frequently, so we have to review the current situation, pay attention to the market of flake graphite at any time, and make timely purchases.

Beach graphite mine also has a mining history of nearly 40 years. The mine contains 11 main ore bodies, with a grade of 3% and a concentrate grade of 91.64%. At present, the mining is stopped. Laiyang City also has daliangzikou and piedmont scale graphite ore, with total reserves of 3.2739 million tons of graphite ore. the ore type is mainly biotite plagioclase gneiss, with a grade of 2.7-3.28% and a scale size of 0.8-1.25 mm.

“Laixi will build a new graphene material industry demonstration base in China and a national” carbon Valley “industrial demonstration base, absorb graphene production enterprises representing the world’s top technologies and form a world-class new material industry chain of 10 billion yuan in three years In the next step, Laixi will build a national graphene carbon material testing center, a graphene carbon material research and development base, and a graphene carbon material standard-setting unit, the relevant person in charge of Laixi said. RMB100mn By 2023, the total industrial output value will reach 50billion yuan.

4.Inner Mongolia Xinghe

Xinghe County of Inner Mongolia is rich in graphite resources, especially flake graphite. The proven ore reserves are 65 million tons and the prospective reserves are 200 million tons. It is one of the three major graphite-producing areas in China. Due to its excellent properties, high-temperature resistance, acid and alkali resistance, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, compression resistance, and conductivity, flake graphite is widely used in iron and steel, machinery, metallurgy, refractory, chemical industry, new electronic industry, and other industries.

With the development of China’s natural graphite industry standardization, the production cost of primary products increases, coupled with the strict environmental inspection, the production of deep-processing products is limited, especially the graphite purification link, which has become a bottleneck restricting the development of natural graphite industry in some places. Therefore, there is more and more imported natural graphite in China’s natural graphite market, and domestic natural graphite enterprises begin to purchase overseas graphite powder in batches, or directly open overseas graphite mines.

But in recent years, more and more companies have begun to process flake graphite, and the output and quality of flake graphite vary from place to place, but after factory processing, both ultra-fine flake graphite and large flake graphite can meet customer standards.