The European Commission recently announced graphene largest technology and the human brain works selected for the "future flagship emerging technology projects”.

The project “High-purity graphite in other applications”

For most purposes amorphous graphite, either natural or artificial, may be used with as good effect as the crystalline variety, but for the manufacture of crucibles it is essential that the flakes be of sufficient size to add to the binding power of the clay with which the graphite is mixed

Natural graphite may be either crystalline or amorphous. Crys- talline or flake graphite is commonly understood to mean graphite in crystals of sufficient size to be visible to the naked eye; much of the so-called amorphous graphite shows a crystalline structure under the microscope

Amorphous graphite is a seam mineral, not to be confused with a vein mineral. It is formed by the metamorphism of previously existing anthracite coal seams. Proto-coal organic carbon is deposited and converted into anthracite coal followed by low grade metamorphism of the coal. This results in the formation of microcrystalline graphite. Regions where this process occurs

Natural graphite is graphite that is formed by Nature. Natural graphite is an important industrial mineral which finds applications in almost every facet of manufacturing including electronics, atomic energy, hot metal processing, friction, coatings, aerospace, powder metallurgy, etc. However not every form of natural graphite is suitable for every application to which natural graphite is applied.

Flake-graphite is probably the most familiar of the natural graphite materials. Most people are familiar with the finely powdered graphite used as a lock lubricant, or the "lead" in pencils. Both of these products typically contain flake graphite. As the name implies flake graphite has a distinctly flaky or platy morphology

Carbon is one of the most versatile materials available for hot-metal applications. Both amorphous and graphitic forms of carbon remain stable under reducing conditions to temperatures well above 5000 F. In oxidizing atmospheres, the rate of oxidation is slow enough to allow the use of this extremely refractory material in "sacrificial" coatings that are conveniently reapplied as needed.