Title: polycrystalline graphite
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - polycrystalline graphite
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.P04723
Status: current

Definition
A graphite material with coherent crystallographic domains of limited size regardless of the perfection and preferred orientation (texture) of their crystalline structure.

Note
The common use of the term polycrystalline graphite for polygranular graphite is in line with this definition but may be inexact because usually all grains of polygranular graphite are polycrystalline themselves. Polycrystalline graphite can exhibit a random orientation, more or less preferred orientation, or a highly oriented texture as in some pyrolytic graphites There is no sharp transition, however, between the typical polycrystalline texture and the 'single crystal-like' texture of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG).

Related Terms
- graphite: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/G02684
- graphite material: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/G02687
- highly oriented pyrolytic graphite: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/H02823
- polygranular graphite: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/P04731
- pyrolytic graphites: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/P04964

Source
- PAC, 1995, 67, 473. 'Recommended terminology for the description of carbon as a solid (IUPAC Recommendations 1995)' on page 500 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199567030473)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04723/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04723/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04723/xml

Citation: Citation: 'polycrystalline 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.P04723
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Accessed: 2026-01-06T18:31:42+00:00