The research progress of structural gene of coal and constitution of coal-based carbon material

The drive for achieving the carbon peaking and neutrality goals will inevitably lead to rapid reduction in use of coal as fuel. For keeping sustainable development of the coal industry, to find new way for high value-added utilization of coal has become an urgent need. The paper starts with a brief introduction to the research work so far made on single atom assembly-based catalytic graphitization coal and coke, together with a description of the furnace core graphite product and its characteristics. It is noted that the product with a crystal sheet of over 100 μm in diameter and is less effected by structure of either coal or coal-based intermediates. The introduction is focused on structural characteristics and constitution of carbon materials of anthracite, bituminous coal and lignite. As revealed by study results, the structural gene of coal exerts a decisive influence on the constitution of coal-based carbon material; the stable structure of anthracite featuring a high fixed carbon content is conducive to the formation of high-strength porous carbon and other reinforcing carburizers; anthracite-based high-temperature graphite sheet is only a few microns in diameter with layers featuring poor parallelism and more intersections, which is suitable for preparing polycrystalline graphite electrodes, electrolytic cells, and for use as chemical inert channels in production of large carbon electrodes; the coal pitch from bituminous coal and the carbonaceous cyanine from coke are good precursors for forming folded graphite; due to the crystal liquid phase growth process during graphitization of coal pitch by needle coke, the diameter of the crystal sheet can reach tens of microns or more, and the wrinkled graphite formed with pellet and impregnation coating can be used as a good cathode lithium storage material for lithium ion battery; the non-crystalline fixed carbon in coke is suitable for making hard carbon material; and the lignite with a sparse micromolecular structure and a porous granular morphology provides a unique basis for constitution of impregnated carbon materials.