“Carbon”-Continuing story——A review of 2018 World Conference on Carbon

The annual World Conference on Carbon, Carbon 2018, was held in Madrid, Spain and was hosted by the Spain Carbon Group during July 1-6, 2018. About 703 attendees from 53 countries participated in the conference, and 794 papers were accepted for discussion, including 5 plenary lectures, 49 keynote talks, 337 oral presentation and 403 posters involved in 10 topics,namely, graphene and graphite; advanced carbon materials:nanotubes, fullerenes, carbon fibres and carbon based composites; coal, coke and carbon black; thermo-chemical conversion processes; preparation, characterization, simulation and modelling of carbon; electrochemical applications; catalysis application; environmental applications; gas separation and storage; carbons for health, medical and biological applications. Graphene, carbon dots, carbon aerogels and other new carbon materials feature more intensive and extensive fundamental researches and diversified applications. Doping heteroatoms or loading metal oxides during preparation of carbon matrix composites have been important means to tune their properties and applications. Energy storage carbon, environment-friendly carbon and healthy carbon will be the hot applications of carbon materials.