Unburned Carbon from Fly Ash as a Source of Graphite Materials

Unburned carbon from fly ash and its graphitization products (at temperatures of 2400 and 3000 degrees C) were tested using scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (xRD) and micro-Raman spectroscopy. The same tests were also carried out for synthetic and natural graphite. Various morphological forms of products with a high degree of graphitization, such as spheroidal graphite, hexagonal plates, column plates, and jagged-edge films were identified in the sample of unburned carbon annealed at 3000 degrees C. The product of thermal treatment at the temperature of 3000 degrees C has the interlayer spacing d(002) value characteristic for semigraphite. With increasing temperature the number of crystallites in stack N, their height L-c002 and aromaticity f(a) increases. The degree of G graphitization of annealed samples increases more than twice with increasing temperature. With the increase of the temperature the aliphatic chains are decomposed and the aromatic systems are reconstructed, so the degree of internal structure order increases. The Raman examinations showed that the structural parameters determined for the graphite and carbonizate samples after thermal treatment at the temperature of 3000 degrees C are equal in the standard deviation range.