Structural defects in mechanically ground graphite Original Research Article

Highly ordered synthetic graphite was mechanically ground in a planetary ball mill. The interlayer spacing d002 was found to increase in the grinding process with the reduction of the crystalline size La, Lc. The specific surface area increased to over 600 m2/g at the maximum. The result of Raman spectroscopy shows that the ground graphite yields a smaller value of full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the 1350 cm−1 peak than the heat-treated carbon for a given value of La. This indicates the difference in the type of structural defects involved between the heat-treated carbon and ground graphite. A further suggestion of this result is that the mechanically ground graphite has more uniform boundary and a less-defective structure of hexagonal graphite lattice within the layer planes than heat-treated carbon.