Carbon, one of the most abundant elements in nature, can bond chemically with itself and with other elements by means of strong covalent bonds, resulting in a variety of structures that allow the development of materials with different properties. Carbon materials can be very hard, such as diamond or graphite, easily coated, very dense, high strength (carbon/carbon composites) and therefore suitable for structural applications (aircraft and race cars) or highly porous (activated carbon); the latter is useful as an energy storage adsorbent or as a catalyst carrier.
Carbon materials have attracted a lot of attention with the discovery of fullerenes and nanotubes. However, traditional carbon materials have played an important role since prehistoric times (pigments in cave paintings, components of gunpowder, writing) and contributed to the industrial and technological development of our society (steel). You can discover more information about carbon electrode.
The discovery of carbon fibers in the 1960s with their high strength and flexibility was an important step in the development of these materials. At the same time, we find the glass bodies, named according to the application of the conchoidal fracture surface, with glassy properties, very hard and brittle. At the same time, the discovery of new structural forms of carbon graphite, needles, and balls is believed to have contributed to the development of new carbon products for various applications.
In the early 1980s, technological developments to produce high density and isotropic graphite blocks made it possible to use them in high-temperature reactors, in semiconductor crystal synthesis devices, and in the discharge electrode components. Nanotubes were discovered in the 1990s, ushering in a new era of carbon materials: the era of nanostructures.
Not only is the world flat graphite carbon structure or three-dimensional diamond type, but now we have a closed structure containing a pentagon carbon atom and a carbon tube with a diameter in the nanometer range, consisting of simple curved leaf carbon atoms distributed in a hexagonal distribution.