China has very abundant graphite resources, and its reserves are the number one in the world. After foundation of People’s Republic of China, graphite industry has developed rapidly.
Graphite is the carbon crystalline mineral. Its crystal flame is hexagon layered lattice. The distance between planes is 3.40A. The distance between two carbon atoms in the same layer is 1.42A.
A process to make synthetic graphite was invented by Edward Goodrich Acheson (1856–1931). In the mid-1890s, Acheson discovered that overheating carborundum, which he is also credited with discovering, produced almost pure graphite.
Graphite is an allotrope of carbon element, the crystal of carbon element. According to different crystal degrees, graphite is divided into crystalline (flake) graphite and cryptocrystalline (earthy) graphite.