Recent progress in the research and development of natural graphite for use in thermal management, battery electrodes and the nuclear industry

Natural graphite has many excellent properties such as high thermal and electrical conductivities, high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, and radiation tolerance. It is widely used in many fields such as thermal management, battery electrodes, and the nuclear industry. The carbon content is an important factor that limits the applications of natural graphite minerals, but the impurities are difficult to remove from high-grade graphite minerals. This review discusses the types of natural graphite and mineral resources, followed by a discussion of traditional graphite purification processes and new methods to obtain high-purity graphite. Recent research on the development of natural graphite for use in thermal management, battery electrodes and the nuclear industry are summarized and the future applications of natural graphite are discussed.