Title: synthetic graphite
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - synthetic graphite
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.S06233
Status: current

Definition
A material consisting of graphitic carbon which has been obtained by graphitizing of non-graphitic carbon by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) from hydrobcarbons at temperatures above \(2500\ \rm{K}\), by decomposition of thermally unstable carbides or by crystallizing from metal melts supersaturated with carbon.

Note
The term 'artificial graphite' is often used as a synonym for synthetic graphite. The term synthetic graphite is preferred, however, since graphite crystals can be considered to consist of carbon macromolecules. Although the term synthetic graphite also covers the CVD product pyrolytic graphite as well as the residues of carbide decomposition, it is predominantly used for graphitized carbon. Such common use is in line with the above definition. Synonyms for this most important type of synthetic graphite are Acheson graphite and electrographite.

Related Terms
- Acheson graphite: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/A00068
- decomposition: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/D01547
- electrographite: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/E01967
- graphite: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/G02684
- graphitic carbon: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/G02689
- graphitized carbon: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/G02693
- non-graphitic carbon: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/N04193
- pyrolytic graphite: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/P04964
- unstable: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/U06569

Source
- PAC, 1995, 67, 473. 'Recommended terminology for the description of carbon as a solid (IUPAC Recommendations 1995)' on page 505 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199567030473)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/S06233/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/S06233/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/S06233/xml

Citation: Citation: 'synthetic 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.S06233
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Accessed: 2026-04-18T09:47:18+00:00