04088 IUPAC Gold Book - natural graphite 10.1351/goldbook.N04088 N04088 current 1 A mineral found in nature. It consists of graphitic carbon regardless of its crystalline perfection. Some natural graphites, often in the form of large flakes, show very high crystalline perfection. Occasionally, they occur as single crystals of graphite. The use of the term natural graphite as a synonym for the term 'graphite single crystal' is incorrect and should be avoided. Varieties of natural graphite with lower structural perfection are classified as 'microcrystalline natural graphite'. Commercial natural graphite is often contaminated with other minerals, e.g. silicates, and may contain rhombohedral graphite due to intensive milling. graphite https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/G02684 graphitic carbon https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/G02689 rhombohedral graphite https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/R05385 PAC, 1995, 67, 473. 'Recommended terminology for the description of carbon as a solid (IUPAC Recommendations 1995)' on page 497 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199567030473) https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/N04088/html https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/N04088/json https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/N04088/plain Citation: 'natural graphite' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.N04088 The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. 2026-04-19T02:27:14+00:00