Glassy Carbon

Glassy Carbon

Glass-like carbon, often called glassy carbon or vitreous carbon, is a non-graphitizing, or nongraphitizable, carbon which combines glassy and ceramic properties with those of graphite. The most important properties are high temperature resistance, hardness (7 Mohs), low density, low electrical resistance, low friction, low thermal resistance, extreme resistance to chemical attack and impermeability to gases and liquids. Glassy carbon is widely used as an electrode material in electrochemistry, as well as for high temperature crucibles and as a component of some prosthetic devices, and can be fabricated as different shapes, sizes and sections.

Glassy carbon  is characterized by the following properties:

High temperature resistance in inert gas or vacuum up to 3000°C

High purity

Extreme corrosion resistance

Impermeability to gas and liquids, no open porosity

No wetting by melts

High hardness and strength

Low density

High surface quality, no particle generation

Low thermal expansion