The Importance Of Carbon In Graphite

Introduction

Carbon exists in different forms such as graphite, amorphous carbon, and diamond, among others. Its graphitic carbon has a hexagonal and crystalline structure that easily cleaves which in turn makes it a soft material and effective lubricant. Its widely occurrence in earth’s crust makes it one the most abundant elements. Carbon presents itself in different allotropes such as Graphene, fullerenes and carbon nanotubes. Some of these allotropes have proven to be conducting and others to be semiconducting depending on their chemical nature (Ramuz & et al, 2012). Because of the abundance of carbon, carbon- based materials can be produced cheaply and in large quantities. In addition, carbon exhibits electrical and optical properties

Carbon in graphitic form presents many advantages for use as electrode due to its chemical inertness, good electrical conductivity, and wide potential range (Iona & et al, 2007). In addition, Carbon is electrochemically noble, corrosion resistant compared to metals used as electrodes. This makes carbon very useful for electrochemical and electro-winning electrodes (Electrodes and Electrode Materials Information, 2016). Due to its low cost, wear resistance, and good machinability, Graphite is the most commonly used electrical discharge machining (EDM) –“a process that removes metal with an electrical discharge of very short duration and high current density between the electrode and the

They can be seen as a collection of rolled sheets of graphene. CNTs demonstrate superconductivity with very large temperature transition. Electrons transport and resistance of CNTs do not depend on the sizes of CNTs. Carbon nanotubes electrodes are constructed by combining graphite powder and multiwall carbon nanotubes in a pestle and a mortar. Then, paraffin is added to the mixture by a syringe before the mixture is packed in a glass tube. After the construction, its electrochemistry is tested to verify its electro-activity by using standard solution of Fe(CN)63-/Fe(CN)64. Care is taken on information about electrode interfaces; mass transiport needs to be minimized in order to be used in catalysis, sensing and electrodeposition (Elrouby, 2013).

1.2 Electrochemistry of highly ordered Pyrolytic Graphite

Highly ordered Pyrolytic Graphite (HOPG) is a crucial electrode material made from structural graphitic nanocarbons such as carbon nanotube and graphene. Highly Ordered Pyrolytic Graphite is simply a very ordered and pure form of synthetic graphite, and its graphitic crystals are well organized and aligned with each other. Its high crystal orientation is gotten from heat treatment of graphite or by chemical vapor deposition. Due to its chemical inertness, good electrical conductivity, HOPG are potential candidate in forming