New Generation Low Carbon Refractory Composites Based on Graphite-Exfoliation

含碳耐火砖是世界范围内钢铁工业最重要的材料之一。仅一家现代炼钢企业每年就要在耐火材料上花费超过200m国标，其中70%-80%是CCRBs。然而，目前商用的CCRBs含碳量较高(&gt；25%C)，导致了一些严重的问题，包括热损失大、钢水温降、炼钢炉钢壳体变形、水口堵塞、增碳、温室气体排放和不必要地使用大量昂贵的石墨。为了克服这些问题，必须将CCRBs中的碳含量降低到适当的低水平(理想情况下是&3%C)，即必须开发所谓的低碳含碳耐火材料(LCCR)。在这一方案中，提出了一个简单、直截了当但又新颖的概念来开发LCCR。基于所提出的技术，石墨炭覆盖氧化物颗粒的有效表面积可以指数级增加。因此，可以在不影响耐火材料的性能和性能的情况下大幅降低碳含量。该计划除了具有学术意义外，还将极大地惠及许多重要行业，特别是耐火材料和钢铁行业，因为它能以较低的成本提供高质量的“绿色”耐火材料。

Carbon-containing refractory bricks (CCRBs) are one of the most important materials for the iron and steel industry worldwide. One modern steel-making company alone needs to spend over £200M/annum on refractories of which 70-80% are CCRBs. However, current commercial CCRBs contain high level of carbon (>25%C), causing several serious problems, including great heat loss, temperature drop of the molten steel, deformation of steel shells of steelmaking furnaces, nozzle clogging, carbon pickup, emission of green house gases and unnecessary use of excessive amounts of expensive graphite. To overcome these problems, the carbon content in CCRBs has to be reduced to an appropriately low level (ideally <3%C), i.e., the so-called low carbon carbon-containing refractories (LCCRs) have to be developed. In this programme, a simple, straightforward yet novel concept was put forward to develop LCCRs. Based on the proposed technique, the effective surface area of graphitic carbon to cover the oxide grains could be exponentially increased. Consequently, the carbon content could be substantially reduced without compromising properties and performance of the refractory. This programme, in addition to its academic significance, will greatly benefit many important industries, in particular the refractory and steel industries by providing high quality "greener" refractory materials at lower-cost.