There are many naturally occurring minerals in the world, Graphite is one of them, it has the properties of metals as well as non-metals. Just like diamond it has also high melting point. Graphite can be used for various purpose like it can be used in pencil, lubricants, electrodes, batteries, solar panels. Naturally occurrence of Graphite is available in different states mostly this is economically available in Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. The demand of Graphite increase day by day as the global market of graphite increase from 12.5 billion US dollar to 17.6 US dollar. Graphite is an extremely versatile and valuable mineral.

Due to the unique properties that are under the possession of graphite, it is widely used in industries and even in daily life. Here are a few properties of graphite:

Lubricant:

Today everyone had an experience to use pencil, breaking pencil tip and then rollaway after this picking up that that lid will make you feel that how slippery is graphite. Graphite is a perfect dry lubricant for different machine parts and locks. Due to its slippery nature, it is considered one of the best lubricants for machines. But that doesn’t mean that it is a competitor of grease or oil.

Tough to melt:

Graphite is a good conductor of heat and electricity; it can’t be melted at normal atmospheric pressure. There are natural and synthetic graphite, natural graphite has a melting point of 3650 centigrade (approximately) on other hand synthetic graphite can be produced by heating calcined petroleum pitch to 2800 centigrade. Its high melting pointy is best utilized in refractories and other synthetic procedures that involve molten metals and shaping them.

Conductor:

When it comes to conductance of electrical charges, graphite stands out among the crowd. Due to its main feature of conductor of electricity and affordability it is mainly used in batteries to enhance their life. Due to this character pencil can also be used to pass electricity. It has a 3D structure; it only consists of carbon atoms. In the outermost shell of graphite there are some free electrons, these free electrons are responsible for the good conductivity of electricity. Graphite is structured into planes with tightly bound atoms. There is a great deal of distance between planes, and they are bonded weakly together, allowing the electrons to move around.

Stronger:

Graphite is one of the strongest materials in the world, it is 100 times stronger than steel. Graphite is an all-start, it is used in various ways such as carbon-refined plastics. Fishing rods, golf kits, bicycle frames, sports cars panels etc. are some items where graphite is heavily used.

there are many different forms of carbon, graphite is of an extremely high grade and is the most stable under standard conditions.

Absorbs fast moving neutrons:

One of the important feature of graphite is that it has ability to absorb fast-moving neutrons. This property makes the material the best candidate for use in nuclear reactors to control the speed of nuclear fission reaction.

Chemical Integrity:

One of the most interesting properties of graphite is its integrity against chemicals. Graphite does not lose its chemical composure easily when it is exposed to chemicals that can easily dissolve or change the shape or properties of other materials.

Insolubility

Graphite is insoluble in water along with other organic solvents. This feature is due to the absence of attractive forces among the atoms of the solvent and the carbon atoms of the graphite, thus making it immune to solubility.

It comes as no surprise that the market for graphite keeps growing day by day, however, due to the environmental impacts that it leaves behind, science is looking at alternatives to replace the mineral. Its role in batteries has already been replaced to some extent but that does not mean all the properties of this mineral can be replaced.